Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.

Children's ability to use social information to direct their behavior is key to their survival and development. However, in observing adult behavior, children are confronted with multiple forms of social information that may vary in reliability and adaptiveness. Two of the most well established...

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Main Authors: Cameron R Turner, Mark Nielsen, Emma Collier-Baker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25198163/?tool=EBI
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spelling doaj-ebf3796feb22465889655731450fc1a72021-03-03T20:12:42ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0199e10737510.1371/journal.pone.0107375Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.Cameron R TurnerMark NielsenEmma Collier-BakerChildren's ability to use social information to direct their behavior is key to their survival and development. However, in observing adult behavior, children are confronted with multiple forms of social information that may vary in reliability and adaptiveness. Two of the most well established biases influencing human behavior are: (1) following the majority (majority influence or conformity); and (2) the use of emotional signals. The current experiment aimed to evaluate how children respond when both information about the majority behavior of a group (descriptive norm) and attitudes of the group towards a behavior (injunctive norm, expressed through an emotional reaction) are present and what happens when they are in conflict. We used a method designed to mimic the manner in which children might observe group members' behavior during development. Novel apparatuses were constructed for which there were two discrete actions that could be performed to retrieve a reward. Three-year-olds observed four adults demonstrating one set of actions, followed by a fifth adult who presented an alternative set of actions. The first four adults' injunctive responses to this fifth adult's actions were manipulated between-groups: positive, negative, or neutral. It was found that children preferred to copy the majority action, regardless of the injunctive reaction of the group. We argue that this affirms the adaptive utility of copying the majority.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25198163/?tool=EBI
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Cameron R Turner
Mark Nielsen
Emma Collier-Baker
spellingShingle Cameron R Turner
Mark Nielsen
Emma Collier-Baker
Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Cameron R Turner
Mark Nielsen
Emma Collier-Baker
author_sort Cameron R Turner
title Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
title_short Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
title_full Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
title_fullStr Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
title_full_unstemmed Groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
title_sort groups' actions trump injunctive reaction in an incidental observation by young children.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2014-01-01
description Children's ability to use social information to direct their behavior is key to their survival and development. However, in observing adult behavior, children are confronted with multiple forms of social information that may vary in reliability and adaptiveness. Two of the most well established biases influencing human behavior are: (1) following the majority (majority influence or conformity); and (2) the use of emotional signals. The current experiment aimed to evaluate how children respond when both information about the majority behavior of a group (descriptive norm) and attitudes of the group towards a behavior (injunctive norm, expressed through an emotional reaction) are present and what happens when they are in conflict. We used a method designed to mimic the manner in which children might observe group members' behavior during development. Novel apparatuses were constructed for which there were two discrete actions that could be performed to retrieve a reward. Three-year-olds observed four adults demonstrating one set of actions, followed by a fifth adult who presented an alternative set of actions. The first four adults' injunctive responses to this fifth adult's actions were manipulated between-groups: positive, negative, or neutral. It was found that children preferred to copy the majority action, regardless of the injunctive reaction of the group. We argue that this affirms the adaptive utility of copying the majority.
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/25198163/?tool=EBI
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