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Selfish, self-centred kids? Blame their immature brains

Dr. Nikolaus Steinbeis

A new study suggests that age-associated improvements in the ability to consider the preferences of others are linked with maturation of a brain region involved in self control.

The findings, published in the March 8 issue of the journal Neuron, may help to explain why young children often struggle to control selfish impulses, even when they know better, and could impact educational strategies designed to promote successful social behaviour.

Human social interactions often involve two parties who want to maximize their own outcomes while reaching a mutually satisfactory result.

It is generally accepted that over the course of childhood behaviour shifts from a more selfish focus to an increased tendency to consider the benefits to others.

However, little is known about age-related changes in this type of "strategic social behaviour" or the underlying neuronal mechanisms.

Researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig conducted behavioural and brain-imaging studies comparing children of different ages as they engaged in two carefully constructed games called "The Dictator Game" and "The Ultimatum Game."

In the Dictator Game, children were asked to share a reward with another child who could only passively accept what was offered.

In the Ultimatum Game, the recipient had to accept the offer or neither child received a reward. Therefore, the games differed in the demand for strategic behavior for the child making the offer.

"We were interested in whether children would share more fairly if their counterparts could reject their offers, and to what extent strategic behaviour was dependent on age and brain development," explains lead study author, Dr. Nikolaus Steinbeis.

"We observed an age-related increase in strategic decision making between ages 6 to 13 years and showed that changes in bargaining behaviour were best accounted for by age-related differences in impulse-control abilities and underlying functional activity of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a late-maturing brain region linked with self control," explains Dr. Steinbeis.

The results suggest that egocentric behavior in children may not be a function of an inability to know "fair" from "unfair," but is instead due to an immature prefrontal cortex that does not support altruistic behaviour when faced with a situation that has a strong self-serving incentive.

"Our findings represent a critical advance in our understanding of the development of social behaviour with far-reaching implications for educational policy and highlight the importance of helping children act on what they already know," concludes Dr. Steinbeis. "Such interventions could set the foundation for increased altruism in the future."

Babies have ‘intuitive physics’ knowledge at birth?

A US Northwestern University study has found that the evidence for intuitive physics occurs in infants as young as two months – the earliest age at which testing can occur.

Intuitive physics includes skills that adults use all the time. For example, when a glass of milk falls off the table, a person might try to catch the cup, but they are not likely to try to catch the milk that spills out.

The person doesn’t have to consciously think about what to do because the brain processes the information and the person simply reacts.

The majority of an adult’s everyday interactions with the world are automatic, and researchers believe infants have the same ability to form expectations, predicting the behaviour of objects and substances with which they interact.

But the world is not made up of objects alone, and Northwestern researchers looked at whether babies can distinguish between objects in their different forms i.e. one's that can be held, touched or thrown, versus substances such as gas, liquids that can flow and may be drinkable.

According to a review of literature, infants show an understanding that unsupported objects will fall and that hidden objects do not cease to exist. Scientific testing also has shown that by five months, infants have developed the expectation that non-cohesive substances like a gas, sand or water are not solid.

“I think liquid is the best example of a non object that you interact with — a baby has to drink liquid every single day,” said lead author Susan J. Hespos, associate professor of psychology at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

“It’s a universal experience with milk or water. We did studies on whether babies expected water to pour or tumble from an upended cup.

By five months of age, babies expect both water and sand to pour, so we have clear evidence that this type of physical knowledge is available early in development.”

While the intuitive physics knowledge is believed to be present at birth, co-author Kristy van Marle, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, believes parents can assist skill development through normal interaction, such as playing and talking with the child and encouraging him or her to interact with objects.

“Natural interaction with the child, such as talking to him or her, playing peek-a-boo and allowing him or her to handle safe objects, is the best method for child development,” van Marle said.

“Natural interaction with the parent and objects in the world gives the child all the input that evolution has prepared the child to seek, accept and use to develop intuitive physics.”

Read more on 'Intuitive Physics' in this paper by McCloskey 

Also you can read another, older (2001), paper; "Are 'intuitive physics' and
'intuitive psychology' independent? - Testing children with Asperger Syndrome