The Development of Sensitivity to Shared Cultural Knowledge as a Socially Meaningful cue

• In Event: Cognition and Bias

Abstract

Knowledge that is shared among individuals can be indicative of a shared social history, but not all knowledge is socially meaningful. For instance, shared knowledge of cultural practices might signal shared cultural group membership, whereas shared knowledge of self-evident facts may not do so. The present research explored whether children (and adults) make social inferences about others based on what they know, and if so, whether they are sensitive to the distinctions in the diagnostic potential of different kinds of knowledge.

Twenty-five adults (MAge = 21.56 years, range 18 years – 29 years) and 67 children were tested (25 6 year-olds, 21 7-year-olds, and 21 8 year-olds). All participants were native speakers of Turkish. Across 8 trials, participants were presented with target children who were knowledgeable about familiar things that are either culture-specific (e.g., how to perform a traditional dance) or general (e.g., how to ride a bike). Participants were asked whether the knowledgeable child would speak Turkish (native) or French (foreign) and whether the target would live close by or far away. Participants were also asked whether they were a little sure or very sure of their answer.

These answers were converted to scores, with higher scores indicating stronger expectations that the target child is a Turkish speaker or lives close by. A mixed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was conducted on scores with Question Type (Language vs. Geographic Proximity) and Knowledge Type (Cultural vs. General) as the within-subject variables and Age Group (6, 7, 8 years and adults) as the between-subjects variable. There were significant effects of Knowledge Type and Question Type (ps < .001) and significant interactions between Knowledge Type X Age Group (p < .001) and between Knowledge Type X Question Type X Age Group (p < .05). Scores were higher across cultural knowledge trials (M = 3.32, SD = 4.20) compared to general knowledge trials (M = 1.23, SD = 3.95, F(1, 88) = 21.89, p < .001), and for the language questions (M = 3.13, SD = 3.59) than for the proximity questions (M = 1.41, SD = 4.28, F(1, 88) = 13.43, p < .001). Adults’ and 8-year-olds’ scores were higher for culture-specific knowledge trials compared to general knowledge trials (ps < .01). Six- and 7-year-olds’ scores, on the other hand, were similar across knowledge types (ps > .5).

We are currently testing more participants to (1) increase the size of our adult sample and (2) to test the generalizability of the current findings. Our findings so far suggest that common knowledge is socially meaningful for both children and adults, and across development, children become increasingly sensitive to the diagnostic potential of culture-specific knowledge when making social inferences about others. These findings suggest novel social ramifications of knowledge assessment.

Authors

• Gunes Oner, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (BOUN)
  Presenting Author

• Simge Ersönmez, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (BOUN)
  Non-Presenting Author

• Begum Koseler, Boğaziçi University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gaye Soley, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi (BOUN)
  Non-Presenting Author