Do children help dogs spontaneously?

Abstract Two capacities considered foundational in human cooperation are prosocial motivation and goal-reading abilities that enable helping. Children exhibit both proclivities by age 2 in interactions with other humans, but interactions with nonhuman species on whom we have been interdependent for millennia are unstudied. We tested the hypothesis that children’s goal-reading and prosocial propensities extend to other animals. We predicted children would help pet dogs access objects that dogs attempted to reach but could not reach themselves. We studied 97 children between 2 and 3 years of age living in a small mid-western US city, 44 of whom had dogs as household pets. In a quasi-naturalistic setting, we introduced children to 1 of 3 friendly pet dogs who remained within a small, porous enclosure while a treat or toy was placed outside it. Dogs reacted naturally, either showing interest in accessing the item (e.g., pawing, begging) or ignoring it. Measures of dog and child behavior during sessions were coded blindly with high reliability. Children provided dogs with out-of-reach items twice as often when dogs showed interest rather than ignored items, indicating sensitivity to the dog’s goals. Additionally, children were more generally likely to provide dogs with items if children lived with pet dogs, if dogs were more lively and engaged rather than subdued and if the item was a treat rather than a toy. These findings lend support to our hypothesis that children’s early-developing proclivities for goal-reading and prosociality extend beyond humans to other animals.