Preferences for similar others vary across judgments

• In Event: Social Preferences in Childhood

Abstract

When choosing who to befriend, children often prefer people similar to them, such as those who share their language, accent, and preferences (e.g., Kinzler et al., 2007; Fawcett & Markson, 2010). Hence, when faced with two new classmates, one from a nearby town and one from a distant country, we might expect children to befriend the classmate most similar to them. However, this social preference may not persist if children instead consider which classmate they would rather learn about. Learning about others provides an opportunity to gain new information. Children may recognize that the foreign person has more new information to share, since children expect people from far away to have different speech (DeJesus et al., 2018), norms (Conry-Murray & Turiel, 2012), knowledge (Soley & Köseler, 2021), and possibilities (Bowman-Smith et al., 2019). So, children’s preference for similar others may diminish or disappear when they consider who they would rather learn about. We tested this possibility across three experiments with children (N=160) and adults (N=103).

In Experiment 1, 4-6-year-olds saw pairs of characters and were asked who they liked better and who they would want to learn more about. One character was described as living nearby in a place with familiar characteristics (e.g., maple trees), while the other character was described as living far away in a place with unfamiliar characteristics (e.g., Joshua trees). Children were more likely to choose foreign characters when indicating who they preferred to learn about than when indicating who they liked more, p=.037, and this preference increased with age, p=.017.

In Experiment 2, we ruled out the explanation that children’s curiosity may have been driven by the background information, rather than about the foreign characters themselves. Four- to six-year-olds were shown the same characters who were described as living close or far away, but the additional characteristics were omitted. Children were more likely to select the local character when judging who they liked better than who they wanted to learn more about, p=.009, and this pattern increased with age, p=.037.

In Experiment 3, this procedure was replicated with 4-6-year-olds and adults, but comprehension questions were omitted. Children and adults were more likely to select the local character in liking than learning judgments, ps<.006, and there was no difference across age groups, p = .496.

Our results show that children mostly liked local characters, but this preference diminished when choosing who to learn about. Together, this work suggests that children do not always prefer people who are similar to them by default. Instead, their preference for similar others is flexible and depends on the judgment they are making.

Authors

• Claudia Sehl, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author

• Ori Friedman, University of Waterloo

• Stephanie Denison, University of Waterloo