Better-Than-Average in Kindergarten

• In Event: 3-108 - Recent Advances in the Study of Distortions in the Self / Narcissism

Integrative Statement

Young children are the ‘optimists of the world, at least when it comes to themselves’ (Shin, Bjorklund, & Beck, 2007, p. 297). Indeed, from when they begin to form conceptions of their traits and abilities, young children typically describe themselves in favorable terms (“I am very strong!”), and believe they have greater abilities (physical, intellectual, social) than is actually the case. But how do young children think they compare to their peers? And how are such self-versus-other views influenced by social feedback? The present experiments involving 4- and 5-year-olds sought to address these questions.

The term Better-Than-Average effect (BTAE) refers to the well-documented tendency for adults to overestimate their own traits and abilities as compared to those of others. For example, over 90% of adults in the U.S. think that their driving skills are above-average, which is problematic statistically. No research, however, has examined the early manifestations of the BTAE.

We conducted three experiments involving Dutch children whom we recruited from kindergartens (Study 1: N=82, age=5.1, 52% girls; Study 2: N=93, age=4.8, 56% girls; Study 3: N=94, age=4.6, 52% girls).

In Study 1, we asked children to build a tower of wooden blocks ‘as high as they could.’ Before building, we pointed them to a set of stickers on the wall, and said: “These stickers show the height of the towers that other children your age built. Here’s your sticker. How high do you think your tower will be?” (The stickers reflected actual tower-heights, established in a pilot of N=89 kindergarteners.) Children thought that their own towers would be significantly higher than those of their peers (p<.001, d=2.02). In fact, the magnitude of this BTAE was 200%.

In Study 2, we used a similar design, and replicated the BTAE (p<.001, d=2.08, 208%). Yet this time, we also tested potential social feedback effects. After the tower collapsed, we randomly gave children positive feedback (“This tower was very high, great!”), negative feedback (“This tower was not so high, pity!”), or no feedback, and then asked them to predict the height of a second tower they were going to build. Social feedback had no significant impact on children’s height estimations for the second tower.

In Study 3, we conceptually replicated Study 2. This time, we asked children to scoop as much sand as possible, within a minute, from one bucket to another. We showed them a bucket with marks indicating how much sand other children their age had scooped (N=10, pilot data), and asked children to mark how much sand they would be able to scoop themselves. We replicated the BTAE (p<.001, d=1.71, 198%). We randomized children to positive feedback (“The bucket is very full, great!”), negative feedback (“The bucket is not so full, pity!”), or no feedback conditions. Again, feedback did not significantly impact children’s estimations for the second bucket.

Together, these results illustrate, for the first time, that young children think they are better than their peers. The BTAE in kindergarteners is pervasive, strong, and relatively independent of in-the-moment social influence.

Authors

• Sander Thomaes, Utrecht University
  Presenting Author

• Constantine Sedikides, University of Sourhampton
  Non-Presenting Author