The Impact of Emotional Valence and Response Orientation on Helping Behavior in Young Children: Evidence from Behavior and fNIRS

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2026.1143

Abstract

Abstract:

This study examined the effects of emotional valence and emotional response orientation on young children’s helping behavior and its neural mechanisms through three experiments. Experiment 1 (N = 259, M = 5.48 years, SD = 0.76 years, 127 boys) examined the effect of emotional valence (positive, neutral, negative) on the helping behavior of young children aged 4 to 6 years. The results showed that, compared with the other emotions, positive emotion was more effective in promoting the helping behavior of young children aged 4 to 6 years. Experiment 2 (N = 180, M = 5.39 years, SD = 0.79 years, 98 boys) further examined the interaction between emotional valence (positive vs. negative) and emotional response orientation (self-oriented vs. other-oriented). The results showed that other-oriented negative emotion was more effective than self-oriented negative emotion in promoting the helping behavior of young children aged 4 to 6 years. Experiment 3 (N = 34, M = 5.38 years, SD = 0.33 years, 17 boys) used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the neural mechanisms underlying the effect of emotional valence on the helping behavior of 5-year-old children under the self-oriented condition. The results showed that, under self-oriented negative emotion, young children’s helping behavior was accompanied by a higher level of activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), whereas under self-oriented positive emotion, young children’s helping behavior was accompanied by a higher level of activation in the middle temporal gyrus (MTG). These findings indicated that the helping behavior of young children aged 4 to 6 years was influenced not only by emotional valence, but also by emotional response orientation. Under self-oriented negative emotion, the helping behavior of 5-year-old children may have been achieved mainly through a cognitive control pathway, whereas under self-oriented positive emotion, the helping behavior of 5-year-old children may have been achieved mainly through an empathy-altruism pathway.

Key words: helping behaviors in young children, emotional valence, emotional response orientation, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), middle temporal gyrus (MTG)

ZHANG Wenjie, LONG Ruyi, LI Miaoqing, FAN Wei, FU Xiaolan. (2026). The Impact of Emotional Valence and Response Orientation on Helping Behavior in Young Children: Evidence from Behavior and fNIRS. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 58(6), 1143-1159.

Figures/Tables 8

Figure 1. Flowchart of Experiment 1.

Figure 2. Data coding for the helping task in the spilled-pencils task.

Figure 3. The effect of emotional valence on children’s helping scores.
Note. Error bars represent standard errors. Positive emotion group (n = 85), neutral emotion group (n = 91), and negative emotion group (n = 83).

Figure 4. Flowchart of Experiment 2.

Figure 5. The effects of emotional valence and emotional response orientation on children’s helping scores.
Note. Error bars represent standard errors. Self-oriented positive emotion group (n = 92), other-oriented positive emotion group (n = 92), self-oriented negative emotion group (n = 88), and other-oriented negative emotion group (n = 88).

Figure 6. Flowchart of the formal phase of Experiment 3 with fNIRS.

Figure 7. Differences in brain activation between children induced with positive emotions and those induced with negative emotions.
Note. Channel 37 corresponds to the Pre-Motor and Supplementary Motor Cortex.

Figure 8. Differences in brain activation associated with helping decisions under different emotional conditions.
Note. Channel 6 corresponds to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC); Channel 15 corresponds to the middle temporal gyrus (MTG).

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