Three year-olds have a reputation of being insatiable egomaniacs, but a new study proves they’re not as bad as their reputations suggest.

Researchers from Germany observed a number of children, ages three to five, as they played with toys. They discovered that the children were more likely to share toys with a puppet that they had witnessed helping another individual than they were to share with a puppet who had behaved badly. Study participants as young as age three also readily volunteered to return stolen items to their rightful owner, and when possible, thwart the theft of items from innocent victims.

Study author Keith Jensen writes, “The take-home message is that preschool children are sensitive to harm to others, and given a choice would rather restore things to help the victim than punish the perpetrator.” So rest easy, your three-year-old terror actually has an impressive propensity for empathy, and even has a sense of justice. (UPI)