Poster #197 - Children’s Use of Reputational Information Shared via Gossip to Selectively Learn from Others

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Gossip – social conversations about non-present third parties – can be positive, negative, or neutral in valence. It serves important social functions, including facilitating bonding and maintenance of social networks, and alerting members of groups to antisocial behaviours of others (Dunbar, 2004). Gossip can also serve as a form of cultural learning (Baumeister, Zhang, & Vohs, 2004). The present study investigates whether children use information about an informant’s personality traits conveyed via gossip to guide their selective social learning.

During the study, children aged 4 to 6 years (N = 128; 43 four-year-olds, 43 five-year-olds, and 42 six-year-olds) were introduced to two female informants through PowerPoint presentations on a computer. They were then shown a brief video clip of two adults gossiping about one of the two informants. The content of the gossip varied between conditions. In the Positive-valence condition, the gossipers indicated that the gossiped-about informant (i.e., the target of gossip) is very honest. In the Negative-valence condition, the gossipers indicated that the target is very tricky. On each of the 8 test trials, children were asked from whom – the target of gossip or the other informant – they would like to learn novel object labels (4 trials) and novel facts (4 trials).

For each child, the proportion of trials (out of 4 per trial type) on which he or she selected the target of gossip was calculated. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of condition, F (1, 122) = 16.679, p < .001, such that children in the Negative-valence condition were significantly less likely to choose the target than children in the Positive-valence condition, t (126) = -4.147, p < .001. There was no significant main effect of age or trial type (i.e., label vs. fact). Compared to chance responding (.50), children in the Positive-valence condition showed a significant preference to learn from the target of gossip, t (66) = 3.583, p = .001, while children in the Negative-valence condition showed a significant avoidance of learning from the target of gossip, t (60) = -2.342, p = .023.

The present research suggests that young children are capable of detecting the valence of gossip statements about an informant’s personality traits and applying this information to guide their selective social learning. Not only do young children use personality traits to guide their decisions about learning (e.g., Landrum et al., 2013; Lane et al., 2013), but they are also sensitive to this information when it is overheard in the form of gossip.

Authors

• Kathryn Harper, Ryerson University
  Presenting Author

• Lili Ma, Ryerson University
  Non-Presenting Author