Two weeks off and then two weeks of work travel has squeezed out blog writing for the last month. During the down time however, friends and colleagues have been sending me articles and videos so I do have a backlog of interesting adult-learning tidbits to share, the first being the impact of stuffed animals on the prosocial behavior of adults.
The one that most captivated me is the study reported in the Harvard Business Review about the impact of child related cues on the moral or prosocial behavior of adults in workplace settings. Adults in the study were told they were part of a marketing study to evaluate products. One group was exposed to stuffed animals, crayons, and cartoons while the other group was exposed to fancy paper clips.
It turns out that adults exposed to child related cues were less likely to cheat on a math puzzle afterwards, less likely to lie, and exhibited more prosocial behavior with others than the those in the paper clip group! The researcher, Professor Sreedhari Desai from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, suggests that the presence of child related cues has this effect because, cross culturally, these cues are associated with innocence and moral purity.
When asked if these findings translated to the real world outside of the testing lab, the professor said there is evidence that when there are daycares, schools or other child related businesses within a 2 mile radius of a business, corporate charitable giving is greater than when the 2 mile radius is not populated by these businesses. Thus, child related cues in or near the workplace can improve both individual and corporate prosocial behavior.
Professor Desai suggests that companies may want to take advantage of these findings to promote more moral and prosocial behavior by playing nursery jingles in the elevator, having child drawings in the boardroom, or using comic sans font for emails. You can watch a short and engaging video interview with the researcher here.
Of course, additional studies will have to be conducted to determine whether childhood cues in other adult settings would have the same positive impact, but while we are waiting for researchers to answer that question, I am reminded of the positive findings of the Parent Child Study. This study, a randomized controlled trial, looked at the impact of Parenting Inside Out (PIO), a curriculum for incarcerated parents on which I was first author. A part of this curriculum's program of study is teddy bear adoption by inmate parents. Every incarcerated parent adopts and must provide 24/7 care of a stuffed baby bear for 7 weeks inside the prison. When the bear is not with the incarcerated parent, it must be in appropriate alternative care. In prisons with the PIO program it is common to see PIO parents wearing a front pack with their baby bear at meals, in class and out on the yard. And yes, men carry baby bears as readily as the women, even in maximum security facilities!
In addition to baby bears, this curriculum is filled with daily read alouds from children's books, exposure to developmentally appropriate toys, and role-play practice supporting children's play with a variety of toys (see a sample lesson). Now I'm wondering, could part of the success of this curriculum be the exposure to 12 weeks of childhood cues, right in the middle of prison life?
The positive findings of the Parent Child study can be found here. Those interested in more information or purchase can contact the Parenting Inside Out website.
As I ponder the impact of child related cues on enhanced moral and prosocial behavior in adults in workplace settings, I am going to continue my practice of bringing table toys (including playdoh and legoes) to trainings. I'm also going to be thinking of additional ways to bring appropriate and relevant child related cues into other adult learning settings in which I work, such as the college classroom. What are your ideas for using child related cues in your adult learning settings?
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2 comments:
As a newly pregnant mom AND teacher, these ideas are so exciting to me. I think even visuals up on a screen might elicit the same sort of effects if bringing in actual items is too much for a certain instructor at first. Tracy, thank you as always for your insight into new ways to be and move and teach and learn in the classroom.
Having seen first hand the difference that Stuffed Bears made with the inmates, it is great to know other researchers are confirming it too. When teaching College Success at PCC I often brought "toys" and markers/crayons and the Adult Learners became very engaged. Thanks Tracy for keeping all of us informed!
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