Positive Reciprocity Among Arab and Jewish Children in Close and Distant Neighborhoods

• In Event: Young people's inter-ethnic group perceptions and relations across contexts

Abstract

Children engage in contingent reciprocity with peers from about 5-years-of-age (House et al., 2013). At the same ages, Muslim-Arab and Jewish children hold essentialist beliefs about ethnicity-based group members, which were also found to depend on the level of inter-group exposure (Deeb et al., 2011, Allport, 1954). However, as biased attitudes do not imply biased behavior, the present study aimed to examine how inter-group exposure impacts reciprocity between Muslim-Arab and Jewish children. In other words, whether exposure to out-group members promotes in-kind responses.
The procedure set a dyadic interaction between a child-participant and an unfamiliar, gender and age-matched peer of the same or different ethnicity (i.e., in or out-group, between-participants design). The peer was presented via pre-edited videos, wherein he/she deliberately chose to distribute resources in an egalitarian manner (3 stickers for each) or a selfish manner (5 for the peer and 1 for the participant). Peers always chose the egalitarian distribution. After three trials, participants got a similar opportunity to decide how to distribute the resources in response to the peer.
In study 1, 160 Muslim-Arab children were recruited from 3 areas in Jerusalem (Mage=5.13, SD=.84). The first area was East Jerusalem, which is distant from the Jewish population (Figure 1, area #1, n=64). The second area was an Arab neighborhood near a Jewish one, called Beit-Safafa (area #2, n=64), and the third was the bi-lingual school, wherein Arab and Jewish children interact daily (area #3, n=32). Two chi-square tests for independence were done to assess Muslim-Arab children’s tendencies to respond in-kind toward in-group benefactors (across ‘area type’) and out-group benefactors (across ‘area type’). The finding suggests that towards in-group benefactors, Muslim-Arab responded in-kind regardless of area type (i.e., 72% chose an egalitarian option towards an in-group benefactor). However, significant results were found toward out-group benefactors suggesting a gradual increase in in-kind responses toward out-group benefactors in areas where higher inter-group exposure is present (χ²₍₂₎=6.62, p<.05) (Figure 2.A.B.).
In Study 2, 161 Jewish children were recruited from 3 equivalent areas in Jerusalem (Mage=5.1, SD=1.09) and underwent the same procedure. The first area was West Jerusalem (i.e., distant from the Arab population; area #4, n=64), the second was a Jewish neighborhood that is nearby an Arab one, called Gilo (area #5, n=64), and the third was the bi-lingual school (area #3, n=33). A similar analysis was done. Unlike Muslim-Arab, Jewish children did not have a preferable response toward in-group benefactors, regardless of area type (i.e., 51% chose the egalitarian option towards an in-group benefactor). However, a trend was found towards out-group benefactors (χ²₍₂₎=4.43, p= .1), suggesting a gradual increase in in-kind responses toward out-group benefactors in areas where higher inter-group exposure is present (Figure 2.C.D.). Notably, SES scores were similar across all five areas.
As inter-group exposure should not affect behaviors toward in-group members, Muslim-Arab and Jewish children were consistent in their reciprocal behavior towards in-group members (though only Muslim-Arab demonstrated ‘in-group favoritism’). However, as expected, inter-group exposure positively affected children’s reciprocal behaviors towards out-group benefactors. Developmental and cultural accounts will be discussed.

Authors

• Lena Kabha, Al-Qasemi Academic College

• Avi Benozio, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Presenting Author