Emotional Information Shapes Children’s Social Evaluations

• In Event: Children’s Utilization of Shared Information Across Contexts

Abstract

Adults share emotional information with one another, which affects liking and interpersonal evaluations (Rimé, Bouchat, Paquot, & Giglio, 2020). Yet, it is unclear whether children utilize emotional information to guide their affiliative preferences, and which aspects of emotional information (e.g., valence, similarity) exhibit influences. We examined these questions in two studies.

Study 1 examined how valence affects children’s responses to emotional information. Forty-eight 5 to 8-year-olds saw photographs of two children and listened to each describe their day. In a positive-neutral condition (n = 24), one child described feeling happy, and the other child (the neutral child) described having a normal day. In a negative-neutral condition (n = 24), one child described feeling sad, and the other child described having a normal day. Children answered three social choice questions (e.g., Who would you rather play with?) to assess their affiliative preferences. Then, they indicated how much they liked each child on a scale ranging from “like a lot” to “dislike a lot”.

There was a significant effect of condition on the preference measure, p < .001. Children in the positive-neutral condition chose the happy child (68% of trials) more than the neutral child, while the sad condition chose the neutral child (71% of trials) more than the sad child. Children tended to affiliate with the child expressing relatively more positive emotions, suggesting the power of valence in shaping children’s social affiliations. Overall, children showed a high degree of liking for both children. A preference for one child did not translate into a dislike of the other child.

Study 2 examined whether similarity between children’s own and others’ emotions affects their affiliative preferences. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a depressing situation, leaving many children isolated because of social distancing measures. Therefore, we presented 5 to 8-year-olds (N = 48) with the neutral child from Study 1 and a sad child who described feeling sad because they still couldn’t see their friends and missed their friends. To highlight similarity, children were eligible for Study 2 if they saw their friends “less than usual” or “not at all” as reported on a parent questionnaire. We also directed children’s attention to their similarity to the sad child by asking how much they missed their friends and how often they could see their friends. Children then answered the same preference and liking questions as in Study 1. Unlike in Study 1, children did not choose the neutral child more than the sad child on the preference questions, p > .05. Children in Study 2 chose the sad child (46% of trials) significantly more often than children in Study 1 (29% of trials), p = .02, suggesting an interaction between valence and similarity in children’s application of emotions to their affiliative preferences. As in Study 1, children showed a high degree of liking for both children.

Authors

• Ashley Shea Ransom, University of Toronto
  Presenting Author

• Adam Anderson, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eve De Rosa, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Lin Bian, University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author