The study, published in PLoS One<\/em>, an on-line journal from the Public Library of Science<\/em>, finds that toddlers under the age of two are happier when giving treats to others than receiving treats themselves<\/strong>.\u00a0 Furthermore, children are happier when they give their own treats away than when they give an identical treat that doesn\u2019t belong to them<\/strong>.<\/p>\n These findings support recent research showing that adults feel good when they help others and may help explain why people act pro-socially, even when doing so involves personal cost. This is the first study to show that giving to others makes young children happy.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople tend to assume that toddlers are naturally selfish,\u201d said Dr. Lara Aknin, who co-authored the study with UBC colleagues Profs. Kiley Hamlin and Elizabeth Dunn.\u00a0 \u201cThese findings show that children are actually happier giving than receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n During the study, each toddler received some treats, such as Goldfish crackers. A few minutes later, the toddler was asked to give one of these treats away to a puppet. In addition, the experimenter provided an extra treat and asked the child to give this to the puppet. The children\u2019s reactions were videotaped and later rated for happiness on a seven-point scale.<\/p>\n <\/strong>When toddlers shared their own treat with a puppet, they displayed greater happiness than when giving a treat provided by the researcher. This contrast underscores the role of personal sacrifice, and rather than finding it aversive, suggests that children find this behaviour emotionally rewarding.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s most exciting about these findings is that children are happiest when giving their own treats away,\u201d said Aknin, lead author of the study.\u00a0 \u201cForfeiting their own valuable resources for the benefit of others makes them happier than giving away just any treat.\u201d<\/p>\n These findings shed light on a long-standing puzzle: Why do humans help others, including people they\u2019ve just met?\u00a0 Part of the answer, it seems, is that giving feels good.<\/strong> The fact that toddlers show the warm glow of giving suggests that the capacity to derive joy from helping others is deeply woven into human nature<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Watch a video from the study, featuring one toddler participating with a puppet, at: http:\/\/cic.psych.ubc.ca\/Example_Stimuli.html\u00a0 See the study at http:\/\/dx.plos.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.0039211<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the UBC press release: If it is indeed nobler to give than to receive, it may also make you happier \u00a0\u2013 even if you\u2019re a toddler, according to a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,9],"tags":[78,160,74,108,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3960,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions\/3960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Babies.jpg\" "\\"babies\\"")
If it is indeed nobler to give than to receive, it may also make you happier \u00a0\u2013 even if you\u2019re a toddler<\/strong>, according to a new study co-authored by three psychologists at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n