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The costs and benefits of kindness for kids (Kid Kindbase)
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Description: What do kids think makes an act kind? Which kind acts are kids likely to perform? Previous research with adults suggests that the kindness of acts depends largely on the benefit provided and to a lesser extent the cost incurred; and that adults are more likely to perform low-cost high-benefit kind acts. In the present study we asked kids (aged 9-12, n=945) and teens (13-17, n=939) to rate the benefit, cost, kindness and likelihood of performing a random selection of 15 of 173 acts of kindness; and we asked adults (18+, n=889) to rate how beneficial, costly, kind, and likely the acts would be for young people to perform. Item-level analysis found that, among kids and teens, benefit but not cost, predicts the kindness of acts; and benefit is a positive predictor, and cost a negative predictor, of the likelihood of performing an act (for an overall ‘kindness quotient’ of 61% and 65% respectively). Among adults: acts were rated as less beneficial, less kind and less likely; benefit, and to a lesser extent cost, predicted the kindness of acts; and cost, but not benefit, predicted the likelihood of a young person performing the act (for an inferred kindness quotient of 59%). Broadly speaking, the results for kids and teens are similar to those from previous research with adults; however, adults are more sensitive to cost when rating the kindness of acts by young people, are less sensitive to benefit when rating the likelihood of acts by young people, and less likely to think young people will perform acts of kindness overall. In practical terms, the results suggest that recommending cost-effective acts may be the best way to encourage kids to be kinder.