Experimental Effects of Goal Priming on Helping Behavior in Young Children

Abstract

This study was a priming experiment to determine whether stimulus materials designed to activate helping behavior in children are effective in eliciting helping behavior. The experiment was based on a card-arranging task using picture cards illustrating helping behaviors and unrelated picture cards. After the task was completed, we observed whether children picked up the cards dropped by the experimenter. The results showed that children who received the stimuli to prime helping behavior were more likely to perform helping tasks (45.8%), thus confirming a certain effect of priming.