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Poster #199 - Preschoolers do not generalize dominance roles from one situation to another

Thu, March 21, 4:00 to 5:15pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Dominance hierarchies organize the social worlds of both humans (Fiske, 1992) and other species (e.g. Drews, 1993). There is evidence for recognition of such hierarchical relationships early on, for instance preverbal infants infer dominance from size (Thomsen et al., 2010). Further, infants treat dominance relationships as stable, expecting an agent who has won in a conflict over one type of resource to win again in a conflict over a different resource (Mascaro & Csibra, 2012). However, the developmental trajectory of this reasoning remains understudied. The current studies ask whether preschoolers make similar inferences, i.e. do they think that a dominant individual who has won a resource in a past conflict (e.g. gaining possession of a toy) will remain dominant and win other resources in future conflicts (e.g. winning access to a bench)?
Experiment 1 aimed to ensure that children could identify the dominant party in the stimuli. We showed three-, four-, and five-year-olds (n=24 at each age) videos of two situations (toy and bench) involving two puppets each (see figure). In each situation, each puppet entered individually and demonstrated a desire for the resource (e.g. played with the toy). Children then saw a conflict scene, where both puppets entered simultaneously, expressed interest in the toy and struggled over it before one overcame the other. To measure recognition of dominance, we asked participants to identify the stronger character. Children were successful on this inference (86%, p=.002 against chance), and improved with age as five-year-olds performed better than three-year-olds (p=.03).
Experiment 2 tested whether children remembered the winner of a situation and whether they generalized dominance from one situation to the next. We tested a new sample of preschoolers (n=24 at each age). Each child viewed one of the situations (either toy or bench), and the complete conflict scene. They then viewed the conflict scene once more, but the video stopped just before the resolution of the struggle, and participants were asked who would gain access to the resource. Children answered this question correctly (76%, p<.0001 against chance, no age effect). They were subsequently shown the second situation involving the same puppets as before. Once again, the video stopped before the resolution of the struggle and children had to predict who would win, and to justify their response. Here, children failed to make consistent inferences as a group (54%, no age differences). Experiment 3 (n=24 at each age) corroborated this finding. Here, children viewed the incomplete conflict scene for the second situation directly after the first situation. Children once again failed to make systematic predictions (57%, no age differences). In short, preschoolers expected the character who had won to win again in the same situation, but they harbored no such expectation when the situation changed. Justifications show that some children expected the subordinate to win in the new situation because of turn-taking. Thus, strong norms of equity may have led some preschoolers to envision a win for the subordinate, resulting in different overall expectations compared to infants.

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