When it’s okay not to conform: The development of a context-sensitive concern for conformity

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Research on the development of sensitivity to norms has revealed that children and even infants expect individuals to conform. However, it remains an open question if children’s understanding of conformity is context-sensitive: Is non-conformity viewed as appropriate or even preferred under some circumstances? This symposium brings together new research from diverse labs to provide compelling answers to this important question.

The first paper suggests that children’s preference for conformity is influenced by their egalitarian expectations: compared to children who expect egalitarianism, children who expect parochialism show less preference for imitators in observed social interactions. The second talk shows affiliative intention guides young children’s evaluations of nonconformity: young children are more likely to approve nonconformity when it does not signal estrangement from the ingroup. The third paper shows that children in both U.S. and China approve of non-conforming behaviors performed by powerful group members more than those by ordinary group members, suggesting that children think social power renders people the privilege to deviate from the group. The final talk examines individual differences in beliefs about conformity during adulthood, revealing that adults’ beliefs about the relation between conformity and intelligence are shaped by their socialization goals for educational attainment.

The four presentations highlight the effects of cognitive, motivational and social factors on beliefs about conformity. Overall, our symposium provides a coherent body of evidence on the development of context-sensitive evaluation of non-conforming behaviors, contributing to a better understanding of when it’s okay to be different from others in our diverse world.

Sub Unit

• Social Cognition

Chairs

• Lin Bian, University of Chicago

• Fan Yang, University of Chicago

Individual Presentations

• Third-party preferences for imitators depend on the expectation of egalitarian prosociality - Presenting Author: Lindsey Powell, University of California - San Diego

• Why do children disapprove of nonconformity? The unique role of affiliative intentions - Presenting Author: Fan Yang, University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Steven Othello Roberts, Stanford University

• More power, more freedom: 4- to 8-year-old children approve of powerful group members’ non-conformity - Presenting Author: Yuchen Tian, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Non-Presenting Author: Lin Bian, University of Chicago

• The ontogeny of American individualism: Individual differences in the association between non-conformity and intelligence - Presenting Author: Nicole Wen, Brunel University London; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Marie Clegg, Texas State University; Non-Presenting Author: Stephanie Estrera, The University of Texas at Austin; Non-Presenting Author: Cristine H. Legare, University of Texas at Austin