Minimal-group membership influences children's responses to novel experience with group members
Children, like adults, tend to prefer ingroup over outgroup individuals, but how this group bias affects children's processing of information about social groups is not well understood. In this study, 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children were assigned to artificial groups. They observed instances of ingr...
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Published in | Developmental science Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 47 - 55 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
01.01.2013
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Children, like adults, tend to prefer ingroup over outgroup individuals, but how this group bias affects children's processing of information about social groups is not well understood. In this study, 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children were assigned to artificial groups. They observed instances of ingroup and outgroup members behaving in either a positive (egalitarian) or a negative (stingy) manner. Observations of positive ingroup and negative outgroup behaviors reliably reduced children's liking of novel outgroup members, while observations of negative ingroup and positive outgroup behaviors had little effect on liking ratings. In addition, children successfully identified the more generous group only when the ingroup was egalitarian and the outgroup stingy. These data provide compelling evidence that children treat knowledge of and experiences with ingroups and outgroups differently, and thereby differently interpret identical observations of ingroup versus outgroup members.
Children, like adults, tend to prefer ingroup over outgroup individuals, but how this group bias affects children's processing of information about social groups is not well understood. In this study, 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children were assigned to artificial groups. They observed instances of ingroup and outgroup members behaving in either a positive (egalitarian) or a negative (stingy) manner. |
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Bibliography: | ark:/67375/WNG-W8N4FFQ7-N Table S1. Categorical Data. ArticleID:DESC1193 istex:AABAA5B7F4182201447B23F39465CE44BBD0EE44 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1363-755X 1467-7687 |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01193.x |