Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Young children are selective in deciding whom to help (i.e.,they preferentially assist and share resources with prosocialversus antisocial others; Hamlin, Wynn, Bloom, & Mahajan,2011; Vaish, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2010) but are they alsoselective in deciding how to offer help? Here we show two tofive-year-olds (N = 32; mean: 42.41 months; range 27-68months) characters who are distressed for different reasons:they are hurt, bored, or sad. Children of all ages tried to helpthe agent but the selectivity of children’s responses variedwith age and condition; in particular, children’s responses toboredom and sadness became increasingly differentiated withage.