Conformity to Peer Pressure in Preschool Children

Both adults and adolescents often conform their behavior and opinions to peer groups, even when they themselves know better. The current study investigated this phenomenon in 24 groups of 4 children between 4; 2 and 4; 9 years of age. Children often made their judgments conform to those of 3 peers,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChild development Vol. 82; no. 6; pp. 1759 - 1767
Main Authors Haun, Daniel B. M., Tomasello, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.11.2011
Wiley-Blackwell
Subjects
Adolescence
Adults
Attitude Change
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Childhood Attitudes
Children
Conflict (Psychology)
Conformism
Conformity
Decision Making
Developmental psychology
Discrimination (Psychology)
EMPIRICAL REPORTS
Evolution
Experimentation
Female
Followup Studies
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Group conformity
Humans
Judgement
Judgment
Judgments
Male
Observational learning
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Peer Group
Peer groups
Peer Influence
Peer pressure
Peers
Picture books
Preschool Children
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reality Testing
Reference Groups
Sensitivity
Size Perception
Social Conformity
Social Facilitation
Social Influences
Human
Preschool age
Social development
Social influence
Peer relation
Social interaction
Experimental study
Conformity
Child
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Summary:Both adults and adolescents often conform their behavior and opinions to peer groups, even when they themselves know better. The current study investigated this phenomenon in 24 groups of 4 children between 4; 2 and 4; 9 years of age. Children often made their judgments conform to those of 3 peers, who had made obviously erroneous but unanimous public judgments right before them. A follow-up study with 18 groups of 4 children between 4; 0 and 4; 6 years of age revealed that children did not change their "real" judgment of the situation, but only their public expression of it. Preschool children are subject to peer pressure, indicating sensitivity to peers as a primary social reference group already during the preschool years.
Bibliography:istex:689E9F11307546725B5E4D08A76508CD434D5C7E
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ArticleID:CDEV1666
We are indebted to Nadja Richter for her extraordinary coordination and support during all stages of this project. We are grateful to Constanze Weiske, Juliane Dauksch, Christiane Markmann, Martina Wittig, Stefanie Voigt, Kristin Schotte, and Franziska Kröbel for their assistance and the children, caretakers and kindergarten teachers for their support. We also extend thanks to Hannes Rakoczy, Jonathan Beier, Bridget Waller, Katja Liebal and Yvonne Rekers for guidance. This research was funded by the Max Planck Society.
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ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
1467-8624
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01666.x