Minimal group formation influences on over-imitation

Children's distinct drive to reproduce costly rituals

Costly rituals are ubiquitous and adaptive. Yet, little is known about how children develop to acquire them. The current study examined children's imitation of costly rituals. Ninety-three 4-6 year olds (47 girls, 45% Oceanians, tested in 2022) were shown how to place tokens into a tube to earn stickers, using either a ritualistic or non-ritualistic costly action sequence. Children shown the ritualistic actions imitated faithfully at the expense of gaining stickers; conversely, those shown the non-ritualistic actions ignored them and obtained maximum reward. This highlights how preschool children are adept at and motivated to learn rituals, despite significant material cost. This study provides insights into the early development of cultural learning and the adaptive value of rituals in group cognition.

Children over-imitate adults and peers more than puppets

Researchers commonly use puppets in development science. Amongst other things, puppets are employed to reduce social hierarchies between child participants and adult experimenters akin to peer interactions. However, it remains controversial whether children treat puppets like real-world social partners in these settings. This study investigated children's imitation of causally irrelevant actions (i.e., over-imitation) performed by puppet, adult, or child models. Seventy-two German children (Age_Range  = 4.6-6.5 years; 36 girls) from urban, socioeconomically diverse backgrounds observed a model retrieving stickers from reward containers. The model performed causally irrelevant actions either in contact with the reward container or not. Children were more likely to over-imitate adults' and peers' actions as compared to puppets' actions. Across models, they copied contact actions more than no-contact actions. While children imitate causally irrelevant actions from puppet models to some extent, their social learning from puppets does not necessarily match their social learning from real-world social agents, such as children or adults. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We examined children's over-imitation from adult, child, and puppet models to validate puppetry as an approach to simulate non-hierarchical interactions. Children imitated adults and child models at slightly higher rates than puppets. This effect was present regardless of whether the irrelevant actions involved physical contact to the reward container or not. In our study children's social learning from puppets does not match their social learning from human models.

Priming third-party social exclusion does not elicit children's inclusion of out-group members

This study investigates how culture and priming 3- to 7-year-old children (N = 186) with third-party social exclusion affects their subsequent inclusion of out-group members. Children in societies that tend to value social independence (Germany, New Zealand) and interdependence (Northern Cyprus) were randomly assigned to minimal groups. Next, they watched video stimuli depicting third-party social exclusion (exclusion condition) or neutral content (control condition). We assessed children's recognition of the social exclusion expressed in the priming videos and their understanding of the emotional consequences thereof. We furthermore assessed children's inclusion behaviour in a ball-tossing game in which participants could include an out-group agent into an in-group interplay. Children across societies detected third-party social exclusion and ascribed lower mood to excluded than non-excluded protagonists. Children from Germany and New Zealand were more likely to include the out-group agent into the in-group interaction than children from Northern Cyprus. Children's social inclusion remained unaffected by their exposure to third-party social exclusion primes. These results suggest that children from diverse societies recognize social exclusion and correctly forecast its negative emotional consequences, but raise doubt on the notion that social exclusion exposure affects subsequent social inclusion.

Evidence for a dual-process account of over-imitation: Children imitate anti- and prosocial models equally, but prefer prosocial models once they become aware of multiple solutions to a task

Children imitate actions that are perceivably unnecessary to achieve the instrumental goal of an action sequence, a behavior termed over-imitation. It is debated whether this behavior is based on the motivation to follow behavioral norms and affiliate with the model or whether it can be interpreted in terms of a behavioral heuristic to copy observed intentional actions without questioning the purpose of each action step. To resolve this question, we tested whether preschool-aged children (N = 89) over-imitate a prosocial model, a helper in a prior third-party moral transgression, but refuse to over-imitate an antisocial model, the perpetrator of the moral transgression. After first observing an inefficient way to extract a reward from a puzzle box from either a perpetrator or a helper, children over-imitated the perpetrator to the same degree as they over-imitated the helper. In a second phase, children were then presented the efficient solution by the respective other model, i.e. the helper or the perpetrator. Over-imitation rates then dropped in both conditions, but remained significantly higher than in a baseline condition only when children had observed the prosocial model demonstrate the inefficient action sequence and the perpetrator performed the efficient solution. In contrast, over-imitation dropped to baseline level when the perpetrator had modelled the inefficient actions and the prosocial model subsequently showed children the efficient solution. In line with a dual-process account of over-imitation, results speak to a strong initial tendency to imitate perceivably irrelevant actions regardless of the model. Imitation behavior is then adjusted according to social motivations after deliberate consideration of different options to attain the goal.

Spreading the game: An experimental study on the link between children's overimitation and their adoption, transmission, and modification of conventional information

Overimitation is hypothesized to foster the spread of conventional information within populations. The current study tested this claim by assigning 5-year-old children (N = 64) to one of two study populations based on their overimitation (overimitators [OIs] vs. non-overimitators [non-OIs]). Children were presented with conventional information in the form of novel games lacking instrumental outcomes, and we observed children's adoption, transmission, and modification of this information across two study phases. Results reveal little variation across study populations in the number of game elements that were adopted and transmitted. However, OIs were more likely to use normative language than non-OIs when transmitting game information to their peers. Furthermore, non-OIs modified the games more frequently in the initial study phase, suggesting an inverse relationship between children's overimitation and their tendency to modify conventional information. These findings indicate subtle yet coherent links between children's overimitation and their tendency to transmit and modify conventional information.

Carry-over effects of tool functionality and previous unsuccessfulness increase overimitation in children

Children 'overimitate' causally irrelevant actions in experiments where both irrelevant and relevant actions involve a single common tool. This study design may make it harder for children to recognize the irrelevant actions, as the perceived functionality of the tool during the demonstration of the relevant action may be carried over to the irrelevant action, potentially increasing overimitation. Moreover, little is known how overimitation is affected by the demonstrator's expressed emotions and the child's prior success with the task. Here, 131 nine- to ten-year-old French and German children first engaged in a tool-based task, being successful or unsuccessful, and then watched an adult demonstrating the solution involving one irrelevant and one relevant action before smiling or remaining neutral. These actions were performed with the same tool or with two separate tools, testing potential carry-over effects of the functionality of the relevant action on the irrelevant action. We show that overimitation was higher when the same tool was used for both actions and when children were previously unsuccessful, but was not affected by the demonstrator's displayed emotion. Our results suggest that future overimitation research should account for the number of tools used in a demonstration and participants' previous task experience.

Priming third-party ostracism does not lead to increased affiliation in three Serbian communities

Young children rely on establishing and maintaining social relationships. As a consequence, social exclusion poses a significant threat that should be avoided actively. Previous research reports that children react to ostracism with an increased tendency to affiliate. For example, they draw more affiliative pictures and engage in more faithful (over)imitation following primes depicting social exclusion. However, all prior studies to date tested this effect in children from strongly socially independent societies, emphasizing individual freedom and psychological autonomy. The current study tested whether these effects also occur among children growing up in a society where social interdependence is emphasized more strongly. We assessed affiliative reactions to video primes depicting either third-party ostracism or control stimuli among 128 preschoolers (M_age = 4.73 years) from an urban community (Belgrade), a semi-urban community (Pozarevac), and a rural community (Kostolac) in Serbia. Across communities, children detected ostracism when it was depicted in the priming stimuli. However, children neither drew more affiliative pictures nor engaged in more faithful overimitation following primes depicting ostracism as compared with control stimuli. The two measures for affiliation (i.e., affiliative drawings and increased overimitation) were not linked on an individual level. Although these results suggest that young children from diverse societies are capable of recognizing third-party social exclusion, their response to such information is strongly shaped by cultural values on social interdependence.

Enhancing same-gender imitation by highlighting gender norms in Chinese pre-school children

Children selectively imitate in-group over outgroup individuals under certain experimental conditions. We investigated whether this bias applies to gender in-groups in China. Three- and five-year-olds were shown how to operate novel objects by same-gender and opposite-gender models. Results indicate that the combination of verbally highlighting the gender identity of the model (e.g., 'I am a girl') and making gender norms explicit (e.g., 'girls play this way') significantly enhances high-fidelity imitation. This 'double social effect' was more robust in 5-year-olds than 3-year-olds. Our results underscore how language about gender and the norms for gender-based groups influence behavioural imitation. The pattern of findings enhances our knowledge about pre-schoolers' social learning and imitation as well as the powerful influence of language and group norms on children's voluntary actions and learning.

Preschoolers' Motivation to Over-Imitate Humans and Robots

From preschool age, humans tend to imitate causally irrelevant actions-they over-imitate. This study investigated whether children over-imitate even when they know a more efficient task solution and whether they imitate irrelevant actions equally from a human compared to a robot model. Five-to-six-year-olds (N = 107) watched either a robot or human retrieve a reward from a puzzle box. First a model demonstrated an inefficient (Trial 1), then an efficient (Trial 2), then again the inefficient strategy (Trial 3). Subsequent to each demonstration, children copied whichever strategy had been demonstrated regardless of whether the model was a human or a robot. Results indicate that over-imitation can be socially motivated, and that humanoid robots and humans are equally likely to elicit this behavior.

Imitation in Chinese Preschool Children: Influence of Prior Self-Experience and Pedagogical Cues on the Imitation of Novel Acts in a Non-Western Culture

Both prior experience and pedagogical cues modulate Western children’s imitation. However, these factors have not been systematically explored together within a single study. This paper explored how these factors individually and together influence imitation using 4-year-old children born and reared in mainland China (N = 210)—a country that contains almost one-fifth of the world’s population, and in which childhood imitation is under-studied using experimental methodology. The behavior of children in this culture is of special interest to theory because traditional East Asian culture places high value on conformity and fitting in with the group. Thus, high-fidelity imitation is emphasized in the local culture. This value, practice, or norm may be recognized by children at a young age and influence their imitative performance. In this study, we crossed prior self-experience and pedagogical cues, yielding four demonstration groups in addition to a control group. This design allowed us to investigate the degree to which Chinese preschoolers’ imitation was modulated by the two experimental factors. High-fidelity imitation was significantly modulated by prior self-experience but not by pedagogical cues, as measured by the number of novel acts imitated and also the serial order of these acts. This study (i) expands our understanding of factors that modulate imitation of novel behaviors in preschoolers and (ii) contributes to efforts to broaden research beyond Western societies to enrich our theories, particularly regarding social learning and imitation. Imitation is a key mechanism in the acquisition of culturally appropriate behaviors, mannerisms, and norms but who, what, and when children imitate is malleable. This study points to both cross-cultural invariants and variations to provide a fuller picture of the scope and functions of childhood imitation.

A model's natural group membership affects over-imitation in 6-year-olds

The phenomenon of "over-imitation"-the copying of causally irrelevant actions-has influenced research of the past decade. Yet, the mechanisms underlying and factors affecting over-imitation are still under debate. This study aimed to contribute to this debate by investigating the role of the model's natural group membership in children's tendency to imitate irrelevant actions using a two-phase design. In Phase 1, 6-year-olds (N = 64) observed either an in-group model or an out-group model presenting a sequence of irrelevant actions, with only the last action bringing about the goal (target action) and retrieving a token. In Phase 2, the alternative model-the one that children had not seen in Phase 1-retrieved the token by performing the target action only. After the presentation in each phase, children were given the chance to retrieve the token themselves. Results indicated that children imitated the irrelevant actions to comparable levels from both models in Phase 1. In Phase 2, in contrast, over-imitation declined in children who observed the in-group model being successful with the target action only but not in children who observed the out-group model do so. Thus, children adapted their imitative behavior after observing the model of their own cultural group demonstrating a more efficient strategy. These findings speak for an integration of both social and instrumental accounts to explain the phenomenon of over-imitation.