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Chai Q, Yin J, Shen M, He J. Act generously when others do so: Majority influence on young children's sharing behavior. Dev Sci 2024; 27:e13472. [PMID: 38197517 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Revised: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 12/16/2023] [Indexed: 01/11/2024]
Abstract
Children's sharing behavior is profoundly shaped by social norms within their society, and they can learn these norms by directly observing how most others share in their immediate environment. Here we systematically investigated the impact of majority influence on the sharing behavior of young Chinese children through three studies (N = 336, 168 girls). Four- and 6-year-olds were allowed to choose 10 favorite stickers and had an opportunity to engage in anonymous sharing. Before making the sharing decision, children were assigned to one of two conditions: watching a video in which three peers all shared 8 out of 10 stickers (i.e., the majority sharing condition) or making their decisions without watching the video (i.e., the control condition). Results showed that both the 4- and 6-year-old children shared more stickers in the majority sharing condition than in the control condition (Studies 1 & 2). Moreover, the influence of the majority had a stronger effect compared to the influence of a single role model. Children shared more stickers after observing three peers sharing, compared to watching one peer sharing three times (Study 2). Furthermore, children were less likely to copy the majority's non-sharing behavior when it came to giving away stickers without prosocial outcomes, which was particularly evident among 4-year-olds (Study 3). The results reveal that majority influence uniquely shapes children's sharing behavior and that children selectively follow the majority based on whether the behavior exhibits prosocial attributes. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at https://youtu.be/8qNNhf9754I?si=7YfpaFpcD_IjlXjJ RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Observing a majority of three peers' unanimous generous sharing promoted sharing behavior in both 4- and 6-year-olds. The influence of three peers on children's sharing was stronger than that of one peer sharing three times. Four-year-olds, but not 6-year-olds, did not copy the non-sharing behavior of the majority as it did not lead to prosocial outcomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiao Chai
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Jun Yin
- Department of Psychology, Ningbo University, Ningbo, China
| | - Mowei Shen
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Jie He
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China
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2
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Finiasz Z, Gelman SA, Kushnir T. Testimony and observation of statistical evidence interact in adults' and children's category-based induction. Cognition 2024; 244:105707. [PMID: 38176153 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105707] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Revised: 10/16/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
Hearing generic or other kind-relevant claims can influence the use of information from direct observations in category learning. In the current study, we ask how both adults and children integrate their observations with testimony when learning about the causal property of a novel category. Participants were randomly assigned to hear one of four types of testimony: generic, quantified "all", specific, or only labels. In Study 1, adults (N = 1249) then observed that some proportion of objects (10%-100%) possessed a causal property. In Study 2, children (N = 123, Mage = 5.06 years, SD = 0.61 years, range 4.01-5.99 years) observed a sample where 30% of the objects had the causal property. Generic and quantified "all" claims led both adults and children to generalize the causal property beyond what was observed. Adults and children diverged, however, in their overall trust in testimony that could be verified by observations: adults were more skeptical of inaccurate quantified claims, whereas children were more accepting. Additional memory probes suggest that children's trust in unverified claims may have been due to misremembering what they saw in favor of what they heard. The current findings demonstrate that both child and adult learners integrate information from both sources, offering insights into the mechanisms by which language frames first-hand experience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zoe Finiasz
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, 417 Chapel Drive, Box 90086, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America.
| | - Susan A Gelman
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States of America.
| | - Tamar Kushnir
- Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, 417 Chapel Drive, Box 90086, Durham, NC 27708, United States of America.
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3
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Zhang B, Deng Z, Zhang H, Chen Y. Do preschoolers always trust the majority? The influence of familiarity and expertise of a dissenter in a Chinese sample. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bixi Zhang
- College of Education Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan USA
| | - Zhijun Deng
- School of Child Development and Education China Women's University Beijing China
| | - Heyi Zhang
- Institute (Department) of Early Childhood Education Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University Beijing China
| | - Yinghe Chen
- Institute of Developmental Psychology School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing China
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4
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Lascaux A. Of Kids and Unicorns: How Rational Is Children's Trust in Testimonial Knowledge? Cogn Sci 2021; 44:e12819. [PMID: 32090379 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2018] [Revised: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
When young children confront a vast array of adults' testimonial claims, they should decide which testimony to endorse. If they are unable to immediately verify the content of testimonial assertions, children adopt or reject their informants' statements on the basis of forming trust in the sources of testimony. This kind of trust needs to be based on some underlying reasons. The rational choice theory, which currently dominates the social, cognitive, and psychological sciences, posits that trust should be formed on a rational basis, as a result of probabilistic assessments and utility-maximizing calculations. In this paper, the predictions stemming from the rational choice approach to trust are systematically compared with the empirical evidence from the field of developmental psychology on how children establish their trust in testimonial statements. The results of this comparison demonstrate an obvious inadequacy of the rational choice explanation of the emergence and development of children's testimonial trust, regardless of which form of trust rationality-weighting, threshold, or ordering-is examined. As none of the three forms of rationality of children's trust in testimony squares with the empirical data, this paper introduces a new version of trust rationality, adaptively rational trust. It explores the compatibility of the concept of adaptively rational trust with the recent empirical findings in the area of developmental psychology and addresses some avenues for future research on the rationality of testimonial trust.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Lascaux
- IBS, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Affairs
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5
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Evans CL, Burdett ERR, Murray K, Carpenter M. When does it pay to follow the crowd? Children optimize imitation of causally irrelevant actions performed by a majority. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 212:105229. [PMID: 34284228 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 06/18/2021] [Accepted: 06/18/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Cultural evolutionary theory posits that human cultural complexity rests on a set of adaptive learning biases that help to guide functionality and optimality in social learning, but this sits in contrast with the commonly held view that children are unselective "over-imitators." Here, we tested whether 4- and 6-year-old children use social learning biases flexibly to fine-tune their copying of irrelevant actions. Children watched a video of a majority demonstrating causally irrelevant actions and a minority demonstrating only causally relevant actions. In one condition observers approved of the majority and disapproved of the minority, and in the other condition observers watched the majority and minority neutrally. Results showed that both 4- and 6-year-olds copied the inefficient majority more often than the efficient minority when the observers had approved of the majority's actions, but they copied the efficient minority significantly more when the observers had watched neutrally. We discuss the implications of children's optimal selectivity in copying and the importance of integrating social approval into majority-biased learning when acquiring norms and conventions and in broader processes of cultural evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cara L Evans
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany; School of Biology, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9ST, UK
| | - Emily R R Burdett
- School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park Campus, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK; Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PN, UK; School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.
| | - Keelin Murray
- School of Biology, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9ST, UK
| | - Malinda Carpenter
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews, St Mary's Quad, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK
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6
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Lago MO, Escudero A, Dopico C. The Relationship Between Confidence and Conformity in a Non-routine Counting Task With Young Children: Dedicated to the Memory of Purificación Rodríguez. Front Psychol 2021; 12:593509. [PMID: 34135796 PMCID: PMC8202410 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.593509] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 04/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Counting is a complex cognitive process that is paramount to arithmetical development at school. The improvement of counting skills of children depends on their understanding of the logical and conventional rules involved. While the logical rules are mandatory and related to one-to-one correspondence, stable order, and cardinal principles, conventional rules are optional and associated with social customs. This study contributes to unravel the conceptual understanding of counting rules of children. It explores, with a developmental approach, the performance of children on non-routine counting detection tasks, their confidence in their answers (metacognitive monitoring skills), and their ability to change a wrong answer by deferring to the opinion of a unanimous majority who justified or did not justify their claims. Hundred and forty nine children aged from 5 to 8 years were randomized to one of the experimental conditions of the testimony of teachers: with (n = 74) or without justification (n = 75). Participants judged the correctness of different types of counting procedures presented by a computerized detection task, such as (a) pseudoerrors that are correct counts where conventional rules are violated (e.g., first counting six footballs, followed by other six basketballs that were interspersed along the row), and (b) compensation errors that are incorrect counts where logical rules were broken twice (e.g., skipping the third element of the row and then labeling the sixth element with two number words, 5 and 6). Afterwards, children rated their confidence in their detection answer with a 5-point scale. Subsequently, they listened to the testimony of the teachers and showed either conformity or non-conformity. The participants considered both compensation errors and pseudoerrors as incorrect counts in the detection task. The analysis of the confidence of children in their responses suggested that they were not sensitive to their incorrect performance. Finally, children tended to conform more often after hearing a justification of the testimony than after hearing only the testimonies of the teachers. It can be concluded that the age range of the evaluated children failed to recognize the optional nature of conventional counting rules and were unaware of their misconceptions. Nevertheless, the reasoned justifications of the testimony, offered by a unanimous majority, promoted considerable improvement in the tendency of the children to revise those misconceptions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ma Oliva Lago
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Ana Escudero
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Facultad de Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - Cristina Dopico
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
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7
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Urban K, Urban M. Anchoring Effect of Performance Feedback on Accuracy of Metacognitive Monitoring in Preschool Children. EUROPES JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 17:104-118. [PMID: 33737977 PMCID: PMC7957852 DOI: 10.5964/ejop.2397] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2019] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Preschool children are generally inaccurate at evaluating past and predicting future performance. The present study examines the effect of performance feedback on the accuracy of preschoolers' predictive judgments and tests whether performance feedback acts as an anchor for postdictive judgments. In Experiment 1, preschool children (n = 40) solved number patterns, and in Experiment 2 they solved object patterns (n = 59). The results in both experiments revealed, firstly, that children receiving performance feedback made more accurate predictive judgments and lowered their certainty after their incorrect answer. Secondly, the children relied on performance feedback more than on actual task experience when making postdictive judgments, indicating that performance feedback was used as an anchor for subsequent postdictive judgments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kamila Urban
- Institute for Research in Social Communication, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Marek Urban
- Department of History and Theory of Art, Faculty of Art and Design, Jan Evangelista Purkyne University, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic
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8
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Sobel DM, Finiasz Z. How Children Learn From Others: An Analysis of Selective Word Learning. Child Dev 2021; 91:e1134-e1161. [PMID: 33460053 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13415] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2018] [Revised: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 03/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
One way children are remarkable learners is that they learn from others. Critically, children are selective when assessing from whom to learn, particularly in the domain of word learning. We conducted an analysis of children's selective word learning, reviewing 63 papers on 6,525 participants. Children's ability to engage in selective word learning appeared to be present in the youngest samples surveyed. Their more metacognitive understanding that epistemic competence indicates reliability or that others are good sources of knowledge has more of a developmental trajectory. We also found that various methodological factors used to assess children influence performance. We conclude with a synthesis of theoretical accounts of how children learn from others.
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Kim S, Spelke ES. Learning from multiple informants: Children's response to epistemic bases for consensus judgments. J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 192:104759. [PMID: 31901723 PMCID: PMC7024033 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104759] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Revised: 11/14/2019] [Accepted: 11/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Consensus has both social and epistemic value. Children conform to consensus judgments in ways that suggest they are sensitive to the social value of consensus. Here we report two experiments providing evidence that 4-year-old children also are sensitive to the epistemic value of consensus. When multiple informants gave the same judgment concerning the hidden contents of a container, based on the observation of one of their members, children's own judgments tended to align with the consensus judgment over the judgment of a lone character, whose observation received no endorsements. This tendency was reduced, however, when children were shown that the group consensus lacked epistemic warrant. Together, the findings provide evidence that young children are sensitive to the epistemic basis of consensus reports.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunae Kim
- Department of Developmental and Clinical Child Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, 1053 Budapest, Hungary.
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10
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Content counts: A trait and moral reasoning framework for children's selective social learning. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2020; 58:95-136. [PMID: 32169200 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2020.01.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
We present evidence that evaluative information plays a major role in children's selective social learning. We demonstrate that social learning patterns differ as a function of whether children are exposed to positively or negatively valenced information (e.g., content; informant characteristics) and that these patterns can be understood in the context of children's schemas for social groups, morality, and trait understanding. We highlight that attention must be given to theoretical ties between social learning and children's trait judgments and moral reasoning to strengthen our understanding of selective trust and account for variations in children's sophistication when they judge potential sources of information. Finally, we suggest revisions to current theoretical frameworks and offer suggestions to move the field forward.
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11
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Kobayashi K. Communicating highly divergent levels of scientific and social consensus: its effects on people’s scientific beliefs. SOCIAL INFLUENCE 2019. [DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2019.1650105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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12
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Mercier H, Morin O. Majority rules: how good are we at aggregating convergent opinions? EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2019; 1:e6. [PMID: 37588400 PMCID: PMC10427311 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2019.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Mathematical models and simulations demonstrate the power of majority rules, i.e. following an opinion shared by a majority of group members. Majority opinion should be followed more when (a) the relative and absolute size of the majority grow, the members of the majority are (b) competent, and (c) benevolent, (d) the majority opinion conflicts less with our prior beliefs and (e) the members of the majority formed their opinions independently. We review the experimental literature bearing on these points. The few experiments bearing on (b) and (c) suggest that both factors are adequately taken into account. Many experiments show that (d) is also followed, with participants usually putting too much weight on their own opinion relative to that of the majority. Regarding factors (a) and (e), in contrast, the evidence is mixed: participants sometimes take into account optimally the absolute and relative size of the majority, as well as the presence of informational dependencies. In other circumstances, these factors are ignored. We suggest that an evolutionary framework can help make sense of these conflicting results by distinguishing between evolutionarily valid cues - that are readily taken into account - and non-evolutionarily valid cues - that are ignored by default.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Mercier
- Institut Jean Nicod, PSL University, CNRS, ParisFrance
| | - Olivier Morin
- Max Planck institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
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13
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Lago O, Rodríguez P, Escudero A, Dopico C, Enesco I. Children’s learning from others: Conformity to unconventional counting. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT 2019. [DOI: 10.1177/0165025418820639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The current study investigated whether children’s conformity to a majority testimony influenced their willingness to revise their own erroneous counting knowledge. The content of the testimonies focused on conventional rules of counting, by means of pseudoerrors (i.e., unconventional counts) occurring during a detection task. In this work measurements were taken at two different time points. At time 1 children aged 5 to 7 years ( N = 88) first made independent judgments on the correctness of unconventional counting procedures presented by means of a computerized detection task. Subsequently, they watched a video in which four teachers (unanimous majority) or three (non-unanimous majority) made correct claims about the counts and children had to decide whether the informants were right or not, and justify their answers. Our participants conformed significantly more when the correct testimony was provided by a unanimous majority than by a non-unanimous majority. In addition, in two of the three pseudoerrors presented, there was no difference in the children’s tendency to conform to unconventional counts as age increased. At time 2, which was taken to test whether the effect of the testimony was maintained over time, the responses of the 32 children (16 from each age group) who had endorsed the claims of the unanimous majority at time 1 revealed that teachers’ testimonies only had a lasting influence on elementary school children’s understanding of conventional counting rules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliva Lago
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid
| | - Purificación Rodríguez
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid
| | - Ana Escudero
- Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
| | - Cristina Dopico
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid
| | - Ileana Enesco
- Departamento de Investigación y Psicología en Educación, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid
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Hermes J, Behne T, Rakoczy H. The Development of Selective Trust: Prospects for a Dual-Process Account. CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Hermes
- University of Göttingen and Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition
| | - Tanya Behne
- University of Göttingen and Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- University of Göttingen and Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition
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15
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Einav S. Thinking for themselves? The effect of informant independence on children's endorsement of testimony from a consensus. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2017. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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16
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Hermes J, Behne T, Bich AE, Thielert C, Rakoczy H. Children's selective trust decisions: rational competence and limiting performance factors. Dev Sci 2017; 21. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Hermes
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition; Göttingen Germany
| | - Tanya Behne
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition; Göttingen Germany
| | - Anna Elisa Bich
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
| | - Christa Thielert
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition; Göttingen Germany
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Enesco I, Sebastián-Enesco C, Guerrero S, Quan S, Garijo S. What Makes Children Defy Majorities? The Role of Dissenters in Chinese and Spanish Preschoolers' Social Judgments. Front Psychol 2016; 7:1695. [PMID: 27833583 PMCID: PMC5081387 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01695] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2016] [Accepted: 10/14/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
When many people say the same thing, the individual is more likely to endorse this information than when just a single person says the same. Yet, the influence of consensus information may be modulated by many personal, contextual and cultural variables. Here, we study the sensitivity of Chinese (N = 68) and Spanish (N = 82) preschoolers to consensus in social decision making contexts. Children faced two different types of peer-interaction events, which involved (1) uncertain or ambiguous scenarios open to interpretation (social interpretation context), and (2) explicit scenarios depicting the exclusion of a peer (moral judgment context). Children first observed a video in which a group of teachers offered their opinion about the events, and then they were asked to evaluate the information provided. Participants were assigned to two conditions that differed in the type of consensus: Unanimous majority (non-dissenter condition) and non-unanimous majority (dissenter condition). In the dissenter condition, we presented the conflicting opinions of three teachers vs. one teacher. In the non-dissenter condition, we presented the unanimous opinion of three teachers. The general results indicated that children’s sensitivity to consensus varies depending both on the degree of ambiguity of the social events and the presence or not of a dissenter: (1) Children were much more likely to endorse the majority view when they were uncertain (social interpretation context), than when they already had a clear interpretation of the situation (moral judgment context); (2) The presence of a dissenter resulted in a significant decrease in children’s confidence in majority. Interestingly, in the moral judgment context, Chinese and Spanish children differed in their willingness to defy a majority whose opinion run against their own. While Spanish children maintained their own criteria regardless of the type of condition, Chinese children did so when an “allied” dissenter was present (dissenter condition) but not when confronting a unanimous majority (non-dissenter condition). Tentatively, we suggest that this difference might be related to culture-specific patterns regarding children’s deference toward adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ileana Enesco
- Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain
| | - Carla Sebastián-Enesco
- William James Center for Research, Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada - Instituto Universitário Lisboa, Portugal
| | - Silvia Guerrero
- Departamento de Psicología, Facultad de Educación, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha Toledo, Spain
| | - Siyu Quan
- Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain
| | - Sonia Garijo
- Departamento de Psicología Evolutiva y de la Educación, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid Madrid, Spain
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18
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Burdett ERR, Lucas AJ, Buchsbaum D, McGuigan N, Wood LA, Whiten A. Do Children Copy an Expert or a Majority? Examining Selective Learning in Instrumental and Normative Contexts. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0164698. [PMID: 27768716 PMCID: PMC5074571 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164698] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2016] [Accepted: 09/29/2016] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
This study examined whether instrumental and normative learning contexts differentially influence 4- to 7-year-old children’s social learning strategies; specifically, their dispositions to copy an expert versus a majority consensus. Experiment 1 (N = 44) established that children copied a relatively competent “expert” individual over an incompetent individual in both kinds of learning context. In experiment 2 (N = 80) we then tested whether children would copy a competent individual versus a majority, in each of the two different learning contexts. Results showed that individual children differed in strategy, preferring with significant consistency across two different test trials to copy either the competent individual or the majority. This study is the first to show that children prefer to copy more competent individuals when shown competing methods of achieving an instrumental goal (Experiment 1) and provides new evidence that children, at least in our “individualist” culture, may consistently express either a competency or majority bias in learning both instrumental and normative information (Experiment 2). This effect was similar in the instrumental and normative learning contexts we applied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily R. R. Burdett
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Amanda J. Lucas
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom
| | - Daphna Buchsbaum
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Nicola McGuigan
- School of Life Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Lara A. Wood
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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19
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Do teachers’ conflicting testimonies influence children’s decisions about unconventional rules of counting? EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY OF EDUCATION 2016. [DOI: 10.1007/s10212-016-0319-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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20
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Bernard S, Castelain T, Mercier H, Kaufmann L, Van der Henst JB, Clément F. The boss is always right: Preschoolers endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 152:307-317. [PMID: 27658803 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2016] [Revised: 08/24/2016] [Accepted: 08/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Recent research has shown that young children rely on social cues to evaluate testimony. For instance, they prefer to endorse testimony provided by a consensual group than by a single dissenter. Given that dominance is pervasive in children's social environment, it can be hypothesized that children also use dominance relations in their selection of testimony. To test this hypothesis, a dominance asymmetry was induced between two characters either by having one repeatedly win in physical contests (physical power; Experiment 1) or by having one repeatedly impose her goals on the other (decisional power; Experiment 2). In two subsequent testimony tasks, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly tended to endorse the testimony of the dominant over that of the subordinate. These results suggest that preschoolers take dominance into account when evaluating testimony. In conclusion, we discuss two potential explanations for these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Bernard
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
| | - Thomas Castelain
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau Cognition (L2C2), 69675 Lyon, France; Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501 San José, Costa Rica
| | - Hugo Mercier
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Laurence Kaufmann
- Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jean-Baptiste Van der Henst
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau Cognition (L2C2), 69675 Lyon, France
| | - Fabrice Clément
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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21
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Boseovski JJ, Marble KE, Hughes C. Role of Expertise, Consensus, and Informational Valence in Children's Performance Judgments. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2016. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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22
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Kim EB, Chen C, Smetana JG, Greenberger E. Does children's moral compass waver under social pressure? Using the conformity paradigm to test preschoolers' moral and social-conventional judgments. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 150:241-251. [PMID: 27367300 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2016] [Revised: 06/06/2016] [Accepted: 06/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
The current study tested whether preschoolers' moral and social-conventional judgments change under social pressure using Asch's conformity paradigm. A sample of 132 preschoolers (Mage=3.83years, SD=0.85) rated the acceptability of moral and social-conventional events and also completed a visual judgment task (i.e., comparing line length) both independently and after having viewed two peers who consistently made immoral, unconventional, or visually inaccurate judgments. Results showed evidence of conformity on all three tasks, but conformity was stronger on the social-conventional task than on the moral and visual tasks. Older children were less susceptible to pressure for social conformity for the moral and visual tasks but not for the conventional task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth B Kim
- Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
| | - Chuansheng Chen
- Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
| | - Judith G Smetana
- Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
| | - Ellen Greenberger
- Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
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23
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Visual access trumps gender in 3- and 4-year-old children's endorsement of testimony. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 146:223-30. [PMID: 26925718 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2015] [Revised: 11/27/2015] [Accepted: 02/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Several studies have investigated how preschoolers weigh social cues against epistemic cues when taking testimony into account. For instance, one study showed that 4- and 5-year-olds preferred to endorse the testimony of an informant who had the same gender as the children; by contrast, when the gender cue conflicted with an epistemic cue--past reliability--the latter trumped the former. None of the previous studies, however, has shown that 3-year-olds can prioritize an epistemic cue over a social cue. In Experiment 1, we offer the first demonstration that 3-year-olds favor testimony from a same-gender informant in the absence of other cues. In Experiments 2 and 3, an epistemic cue-visual access--was introduced. In those experiments, 3- and 4-year-olds endorsed the testimony of the informant with visual access regardless of whether it was a same-gender informant (Experiment 3) or a different-gender informant (Experiment 2). These results demonstrate that 3-year-olds are able to give more weight to an epistemic cue than to a social cue when evaluating testimony.
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Wilks M, Kapitány R, Nielsen M. Preschool children's learning proclivities: When the ritual stance trumps the instrumental stance. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2016; 34:402-14. [PMID: 26918867 DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2015] [Revised: 11/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has demonstrated an efficiency bias in social learning whereby young children preferentially imitate the functional actions of a successful individual over an unsuccessful group member. Our aim in the current research was to examine whether this bias remains when actions are presented as conventional rather than instrumental. Preschool children watched videos of an individual and a group member. The individual always demonstrated a successful instrumental action and the group member an unsuccessful action that was either causally transparent or opaque. Highlighting the selective nature of social learning, children copied the group at higher rates when the demonstrated actions were causally opaque than when they were causally transparent. This research draws attention to the influence of conventional/ritual-like actions on young children's learning choices and emphasizes the role of this orientation in the development of human-specific cumulative culture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matti Wilks
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Rohan Kapitány
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Mark Nielsen
- Early Cognitive Development Centre, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.,Faculty of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
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25
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Jacquot A, Eskenazi T, Sales-Wuillemin E, Montalan B, Proust J, Grèzes J, Conty L. Source unreliability decreases but does not cancel the impact of social information on metacognitive evaluations. Front Psychol 2015; 6:1385. [PMID: 26441760 PMCID: PMC4568399 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01385] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2015] [Accepted: 08/31/2015] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Through metacognitive evaluations, individuals assess their own cognitive operations with respect to their current goals. We have previously shown that non-verbal social cues spontaneously influence these evaluations, even when the cues are unreliable. Here, we explore whether a belief about the reliability of the source can modulate this form of social impact. Participants performed a two-alternative forced choice task that varied in difficulty. The task was followed by a video of a person who was presented as being either competent or incompetent at performing the task. That person provided random feedback to the participant through facial expressions indicating agreement, disagreement or uncertainty. Participants then provided a metacognitive evaluation by rating their confidence in their answer. Results revealed that participants’ confidence was higher following agreements. Interestingly, this effect was merely reduced but not canceled for the incompetent individual, even though participants were able to perceive the individual’s incompetence. Moreover, perceived agreement induced zygomaticus activity, but only when the feedback was provided for difficult trials by the competent individual. This last result strongly suggests that people implicitly appraise the relevance of social feedback with respect to their current goal. Together, our findings suggest that people always integrate social agreement into their metacognitive evaluations, even when epistemic vigilance mechanisms alert them to the risk of being misinformed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amélie Jacquot
- Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Neuropsychologie EA 2027, Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis France
| | - Terry Eskenazi
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives INSERM U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France
| | - Edith Sales-Wuillemin
- Laboratoire de Socio-Psychologie et Management du Sport EA 4180, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon France
| | - Benoît Montalan
- Laboratoire ICONES EA 4699, Université de Normandie, Mont-Saint-Aignan France
| | - Joëlle Proust
- Institut Jean Nicod, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France
| | - Julie Grèzes
- Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives INSERM U960, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris France
| | - Laurence Conty
- Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Neuropsychologie EA 2027, Université Paris 8, Saint-Denis France
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26
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Bernard S, Clément F, Kaufmann L. Rules Trump Desires in Preschoolers’ Predictions of Group Behavior. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2015. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12150] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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