3-060 - Social Cognition in Intergroup Contexts: Mental States, Theory of Mind and Moral Judgments

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Resent research has documented the critical role of children’s social-cognitive capacities in intergroup contexts (Killen, Hitti, & Mulvey, 2014; Rutland & Killen, 2015). As children engage in intergroup contexts, they are exposed to individuals from other social groups with different norms, abilities, and obstacles. While exposure to these diverse perspectives can lead to positive intergroup relationships, harmful stereotypes and negative intergroup attitudes can, if not examined critically, undermine intergroup relations. This symposium examines the nuanced social and social-cognitive factors that influence children’s moral judgments, mental state reasoning, and evaluations of intergroup situations.
Paper 1 presents data from two experiments documenting young children’s use of theory of mind (ToM) competencies when allocating resources in gender stereotypic contexts. Paper 2 examines children’s mental state evaluations in intergroup contexts, revealing children’s ingroup preference in their selective trust of others. Paper 3 discusses the role of ToM in children’s trait attributions about average and typically stigmatized peers, demonstrating the role of ToM in children’s evaluations of peers from stigmatized groups. Paper 4 reveals that children use social-cognitive skills when evaluating resource allocations in school intergroup contexts, showing that children with ToM evaluate unequal allocations, especially in intergroup contexts, as less acceptable than children without ToM.
These papers will be discussed in light of research drawing on social development, moral development, social cognition, and intergroup relations. They employ different methodologies revealing the complexity of children’s social decision-making and the nuances of the influences at play when making social decisions in intergroup contexts.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Kelly Lynn Mulvey, University of South Carolina

• Michael T Rizzo, University of Maryland

Individual Presentations

• The Influence of Theory of Mind in Children’s Ability to Challenge Gender Stereotypes in Resource Allocation Contexts. - Presenting Author: Michael T Rizzo, University of Maryland; Melanie Killen, University of Maryland, College Park

• Children’s Selective Trust in Ingroup Versus Outgroup Others - Presenting Author: Lili Ma, Ryerson University; Kyla Patricia McDonald, Ryerson University

• Theory of Mind and Children’s Trait Attributions about Average and Typically Stigmatized Peers - Presenting Author: Candace Lapan, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Janet Boseovski, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

• The Role of Theory of Mind in Evaluations of Intergroup Resource Allocations - Presenting Author: Kelly Lynn Mulvey, University of South Carolina; Kelley Buchheister, University of South Carolina; Kathleen McGrath, University of South Carolina