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My past research reflects a passionate interest in human prosociality (i.e. altruism, cooperation, reciprocity) and interdisciplinary research (cognitive neuroscience, experimental and developmental psychology, behavioral economics, human evolution).
My main contribution to the topic was a greater understanding of 1) the neural mechanisms of human prosociality (PhD in a cognitive psychology institute; Centre of Brain and Cognition, France), 2) the development of prosociality in young children (developmental psychology; School of Psychology in the University of Ottawa, Canada), 3) the different mechanisms (patience, social norms) that modulate the development of children prosociality (social sciences; Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse), and 4) the impact of genetic relatedness on children cooperation (human evolution; TSE and SETE).
Ontogeny and evolution of cooperation
Ontogeny and evolution of cooperation
The expression “blood is thicker than water” illustrates the common view that familial bonds are stronger than other social bonds. While human adults clearly prefer to cooperate with family members, we investigate if the same is true for children. Surprisingly, we show that children cooperated better with non-relatives than siblings. Cooperation increased perceptions of friendship among non-friends which should help children expand their social network and improve future success. This new result shows that preferences in cooperation are not stable through life and challenges our understanding of the development of cooperation in humans and other longer-lived organisms.
Drawing. of cooperative apparatus by O . Scelsi The expression “blood is thicker than water” illustrates the common view that familial bonds are stronger than other social bonds. While human adults clearly prefer to cooperate with family members, we investigate if the same is true for children. Surprisingly, we show that children cooperated better with non-relatives than siblings. Cooperation increased perceptions of friendship among non-friends which should help children expand their social network and improve future success. This new result shows that preferences in cooperation are not stable through life and challenges our understanding of the development of cooperation in humans and other longer-lived organisms.
Impatient children are also more Altruistic
Impatient children are also more Altruistic
While humans are often considered as instinctively selfish agents who need patience and social norms to exert prosocial behaviors, indirect evidence from social science to biological studies indicate that prosociality could represent an innate “impulse”. Here, we show that impatient 4-to-6 year-old children gave more to an unknown child than patient children supporting the vision that pure prosociality reflects an automatic and impulsive behavior.
While humans are often considered as instinctively selfish agents who need patience and social norms to exert prosocial behaviors, indirect evidence from social science to biological studies indicate that prosociality could represent an innate “impulse”. Here, we show that impatient 4-to-6 year-old children gave more to an unknown child than patient children supporting the vision that pure prosociality reflects an automatic and impulsive behavior.
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