The effect of information in the intergroup context on children's attitudes, behavior, and self-efficacy

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

When learning how to navigate the physical and social worlds, children observe others’ actions and draw inferences that guide their own thinking and behavior. In doing so, children are highly selective about the type of the information that they consider. Social group membership is a particularly strong guide for children: They show a preference towards ingroup over outgroup members in their attitudes, on behavioral tasks, and when learning about themselves. Yet, little is known about how group-related information interacts with additional information about individuals to shape children’s attitudes, perceptions, and behavior.
In this symposium we present three studies investigating how different types of information about in- and out-group members affect children’s subsequent attitudes and behavior.
Study 1 explores how information about ethnic-national group identity influences the extent to which children display ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation across development. Study 2 tests how explanations for in- and out-group members’ prosocial and harmful behaviors affect children’s predictions of subsequent intergroup behaviors, showing that children revise their intuitive expectations about social groups in response to plausible, non-group-related explanations. Study 3 investigates how information about in- and out-group members' performance on a challenging task affects children's own perseverance and self-efficacy, revealing that children are oriented towards ingroup members' performance and show higher persistence and self-efficacy when ingroup members have performed poorly (vs. well). Finally, a discussant will provide a critical integration of these findings, focusing on their implications for both theory and applied work.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chair

• Antonia Misch, LMU Munich

Discussant

• Harriet Over, University of York

Individual Presentations

• The Effect of Group Identity on Children’s Inter-Group Attitudes - Presenting Author: Yara Nassir, Bar-Ilan university; Non-Presenting Author: Gil Diesendruck, Bar Ilan University

• Using explanations to intervene upon children’s social category-based expectations - Presenting Author: Lisa Chalik, Skidmore College

• The effect of social comparison in an intergroup context on children’s motivation, performance and self-efficacy - Presenting Author: Antonia Misch, LMU Munich; Non-Presenting Author: Markus Paulus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München