A few years ago, researchers at the University of Washington published an interesting study about altruism.
They paired a group of nineteen-month-old infants with adult researchers. The adult would carry in some fruit, pretend to clumsily drop the fruit onto a tray just out of reach, and then imploringly reach for the fruit.
About 60% of the infants picked up the fruit and handed it to the researcher.
But maybe the infants were being helpful because they didnât care about the fruit, and so giving it away didnât matter to them?
So the researchers asked parents to bring in their infants immediately before a normal meal and before their parents fed them, so the infants were hungry during the experiment.
Nearly 40% of the hungry infants still handed the fruit to the researchers.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-58645-9Scientific Reports - Altruistic food sharing behavior by human infants after a hunger manipulation
Nature