Let R be a ring with left identity e and suitably-restricted additive torsion, and Z(R) its center. Let H : $R{\times}R{\times}R{\rightarrow}R$ be a symmetric 3-additive mapping, and let h be the trace of H. In this paper we show that (i) if for each $x{\in}R$, $$n=<<\cdots,\;x>,\;\cdots,x>{\in}Z(R)$$ with $n\geq1$ fixed, then h is commuting on R. Moreover, h is of the form $$h(x)=\lambda_0x^3+\lambda_1(x)x^2+\lambda_2(x)x+\lambda_3(x)\;for\;all\;x{\in}R$$, where $\lambda_0\;{\in}\;Z(R)$, $\lambda_1\;:\;R{\rightarrow}R$ is an additive commuting mapping, $\lambda_2\;:\;R{\rightarrow}R$ is the commuting trace of a bi-additive mapping and the mapping $\lambda_3\;:\;R{\rightarrow}Z(R)$ is the trace of a symmetric 3-additive mapping; (ii) for each $x{\in}R$, either $n=0\;or\;<n,\;x^m>=0$ with $n\geq0,\;m\geq1$ fixed, then h = 0 on R, where denotes the product yx+xy and Z(R) is the center of R. We also present the conditions which implies commutativity in rings with identity as motivated by the above result.