Young children’s willingness to deceive shows in-group bias only in specific social contexts
| Autor: | Katherine Rice Warnell, Callie De La Cerda |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Male
Deception media_common.quotation_subject Child Behavior Experimental and Cognitive Psychology Context (language use) 050105 experimental psychology Thinking Punishment Developmental and Educational Psychology Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences In-group favoritism Early childhood Child Social Behavior Minimal group paradigm media_common 05 social sciences Group Processes Social Perception Child Preschool Spite Female Psychology Lying Social psychology Social cognitive theory 050104 developmental & child psychology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 198:104906 |
| ISSN: | 0022-0965 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104906 |
| Popis: | The ability to deceive others is an early-emerging and socially complex skill, but relatively little is known about when and how a social partner’s identity affects young children’s willingness to lie. To understand how group membership affects children’s lying, we used a minimal group paradigm to examine children’s willingness to deceive in-group and out-group members across varied contexts that systematically varied in their costs and benefits. A total of 69 children aged 4 to 7 years played three versions of a sticker-hiding game: a Self-Benefit scenario (child could lie for personal gain), an Other-Benefit scenario (child could lie to help someone else), and a No-Benefit scenario (child could lie to spite someone else). Children lied the most in the Self-Benefit scenario, lying equally to in-group and out-group members in this context. When the potential for self-gain disappeared, however, in-group bias emerged. In the Other-Benefit scenario, children lied more to out-group members in order to help in-group members. Even when the potential to help another was removed (the No-Benefit scenario), children still engaged in more lie telling to out-group members. Results suggest that children’s lying is sensitive to group membership, but only in certain social situations, as children’s desire to benefit themselves may outweigh in-group bias. Future research should examine alternate contexts, such as lying to avoid punishment, to determine when group membership is most salient. Overall, results indicate that young children are able to flexibly apply a complex social cognitive skill based on group membership and contextual demands, with implications for social behavior and intergroup relations throughout development. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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