Poster #119 - A cross cultural exploration of when children seek out information from adults and peers

• In Event: Poster Session 01

Abstract

This study sought to explore whether children preference adults or peers when seeking information about how to act in various situations, across four different countries: the United States, Peru, Uganda and Canada. Past work has found that children make decisions about how to act based on both peer and adult models (E.g., McAuliffe et al., 2017; Rakoczy et al., 2010), that these decisions are motivated by the social category of the model (e.g., Frazier et al., 2012) and that the influence of such models differs across cultures (e.g., Blake et al., 2016). However, to what extent do children prefer peers or adults when seeking information about how to act, and does this strategically depend on the type of information they are seeking? Further, might knowledge preferences change across development, and how does this differ across different cultures?
Data have been collected for a total of N = 492 children aged between 6 to 11 years: N = 120 from Peru, N = 118 from Canada, N = 147 from Uganda and N = 107 from the United States. Data collection is finished in all countries apart from the United States, where we have a target sample of 120. In all countries, children were asked 8 questions about who they thought knew best in different situations between an adult or a “child their age”. The questions focused on who knew best about being virtuous (e.g., “who do you think knows how to do nice things even when it’s hard? An adult or a child your age?”), life skills (e.g., “who would you ask if you wanted to learn how to cook food?”) and general preferences (e.g., “who would you ask if you wanted to learn which games are the most fun to play?”). We expected that children would favor adults when answering questions regarding who knew best about being virtuous and life skills, but favor their peers when seeking information about general preferences. Further, we expected older children to preference information from their peers more than younger children. To investigate this, when data collection is complete, we will conduct a logistic regression exploring whether type of situation (virtue, life skills and general preference) and increasing age predict who children preference when seeking information (adult or peer). In addition, we will conduct exploratory analyses examining site-based differences in children’s responses. The findings from this study will be of great benefit to ongoing research on how children learn social norms as they age, and how this might be different across different cultures. In addition, it will provide insight into the best ways of teaching children about social norms and virtuous behavior, such as whether this information may be best received if coming from an adult or a peer.

Authors

• Shalini Gautam, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Dorsa Amir, Boston College

• Richard E Ahl, Boston College

• Aaron Baker

• Katherine McAuliffe, Boston College