Poster #197 - Iranian Children Favor Status Over Ethnic Similarity and Intergroup Dynamics When Evaluating Outgroups

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Children generally favor individuals of their own group over those outside of their group, but it is unclear which dimensions of the outgroup matter most to children when they form intergroup biases. To help answer this question, we test four hypotheses with Iranian children: (1) whether outgroups are fairly interchangeable, such that children dislike all outgroups relatively equally (2) if children rank outgroups on the basis of how similar they are to their own group (3), if children's feelings toward outgroup members is contingent on intergroup dynamics (e.g., historical intergroup conflict) or (4) if the relative status of outgroups is a central determinant of how children evaluate different groups. We explore these hypotheses by assessing children’s desire to associate with members of different social groups and if these desires extend to other social judgments, including whether group members are perceived as trustworthy and worthy of loyalty.

We asked 7- to 12-yr-old Iranian children (N=71) to rank 4 social groups: Iranian children from their school (in-group), Iranian children from a different school (outgroup on one dimension), Arab children (culturally similar outgroup) and American children (high status outgroup with history of political conflict), on desire to associate. Children also rated the groups on perceived social status and how much they wanted to befriend, trust and be loyal to members of different groups.

Results were consistent with the relative status hypothesis, with Iranian children reporting that they wanted to be friends with American children (who they ranked as the highest status group), as much as ingroup members. This desired friendship was significantly greater than for Arab children (who they ranked as the lowest status group), or even Iranian children from a different school. Similar patterns of results were also seen on measures of trust and loyalty. These findings demonstrate that Iranian children favor status over cultural similarity and historical intergroup dynamics when making social judgments about outgroup members.

Authors

• Haleh Yazdi, University of California, San Diego
  Presenting Author

• David Barner, University of California, San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gail D Heyman, University of California, San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author