Can Helping Someone Ever Be a Bad Thing?

People think that helping others is nice. Teachers and parents often tell children to help others, for example in the classroom. I discovered that sometimes children help in a way that is not nice. In two studies, children (7–9 years old) got to help peers solve puzzles. Children gave more correct answers to someone who was struggling with the puzzles, but they gave more hints to someone who was already good at the puzzles. If you simply give someone the answers, they cannot learn new skills—and people who do not learn new skills can keep struggling. Children in my studies thus helped their struggling peers in a way that causes them to keep struggling, while the way they helped the peers who could already solve the puzzles made these children become even better at them. Thus, sometimes help can lead to outcomes that are not so positive.