Poster #186 - A Cross-Cultural Exploration of the Social Screen Effect

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Children in WEIRD societies (i.e., those classified as Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic) now grow up with an almost saturated exposure to digital-media. The widespread accessibility of electronic devices and emergence of new technologies has ushered in a new generation of children whose experience of digital media is increasingly interactive and dynamic. Together, it serves to create a potential framework in which screen-based information is perceived as socially relevant.
A recent study labelled the above phenomena the ‘social screen effect’, showing that children were more inclined towards a normative mode of learning (focus on learning a socially preferred convention even if it leads to a less efficient approach) while watching an adult demonstrate goal-oriented, object directed sequences of action on a laptop screen. Conversely, children tended to focus on instrumental information when observing a live demonstration, where they prioritized achieving the outcome in the most efficient manner. What remains unknown is whether or not this is driven by technology exposure and if this is only apparent in WEIRD societies. Therefore, we replicated this study and compared children from two contrasting locations: a large urban city in Australia (WEIRD) and a town in Malaysia (non-WEIRD).
One hundred and fifty 4- to 6-year-olds were shown how to retrieve stickers from two distinct apparatuses: The first involved lifting up a mini-bucket from inside a tube, and the second to push a mini-container out of a box. To complete the tasks, children were shown how to construct and use a tool (using Lego; magnets) or how to use a more efficient alternative (a pipe cleaner; a dowel) either via live presentation or videos presented on a laptop screen, where the sub-optimal options were framed as normative (i.e., “everybody uses this”). We also included a baseline condition in which demonstration was shown live with neutral normative expressions (i.e., “some people use this”). Based on the assumed difference in cultural framework and technology exposure between the two cultural groups, we predicted that Malaysian children would be equally likely to copy the normative options in both live and video conditions, with higher rates than Australian children.
An ANOVA revealed no main effect of location, but a main effect of condition. Follow-up tests showed no difference in rates of imitating the inefficient approach between live and video conditions, however the rates in these conditions were higher than baseline (see Figure 1). Further, we revealed a significant age x condition interaction, where 6-year-olds in both locations were more likely to copy normative options than 4-year-olds, but only in the live condition. This age effect might have contributed to null replication of the ‘social screen effect’ and is worth further investigation.
This study affords novel insights into cultural expectations surrounding social learning of tool use, normative behaviour and digital-media effect. Future research should investigate potential moderators of the ‘social screen effect’ by taking account into the quality and quantity of digital-media exposure. This study has general implications of initiating heterogenous data collection practices and research replication.

Authors

• Frankie T.K. Fong, University of Queensland
  Presenting Author

• Mark Nielsen, The University of Queensland
  Non-Presenting Author