Kind actions, kind reactions? The impact of considerate behavior on children’s social preferences.

Being considerate of other people's needs is an important way in which people show they care about others. Do young children pick up on this social signal? Across three preregistered studies (N = 254; 125 boys, 129 girls, 87%-89% Dutch), we investigated children's evaluation of and behavior toward considerate and inconsiderate peers. An internal meta-analysis of Studies 1 and 2 showed that children (4-7 years) did not like considerate peers more than inconsiderate peers, but older children (around 7 years) did prefer to collaborate with peers who were considerate of their needs. Study 3 tested a sample of 9-11-year-old-children and showed that in this age group, children also liked considerate peers more than inconsiderate peers. Although young children understand that behaving considerately is nice, subtle prosocial behaviors only impact children's social preferences when they are older. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).