Appreciating a "Broader Mindset": Children's Evaluations of Different Impact Mindsets

People care about different things in their lives. Many people care about their families by supporting them, and some people also care about the world, beyond their family. We refer to these different concerns as the "impact mindset", where one can show a self-oriented mindset, a family-oriented mindset, or a world-oriented mindset. Research shows that children care about themselves and family members, but we know little about how they evaluate the mindset of caring about the world. In the current study, we assessed 4-9-year-old children (N = 117) and adults' (N = 120) evaluations of three individuals with different types of mindsets. Both children and adults rated the world-oriented mindset more positively and recognized that the world-oriented individuals make bigger impacts on the world than the self- and family-oriented individuals. Similar patterns were found when children were asked forced-choice questions comparing the world-oriented individual to self- and family-oriented individuals. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of children's valuation of individuals with different impact mindsets, revealing an early appreciation for making an impact on the world.