Poster #12 - Do preschoolers regulate exploratory play in light of an onlooker’s evaluations?

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

From a young age, children are attuned to others evaluations and engage in ‘reputation management’—modifying their behavior to manipulate what others’ think of them. Four-year-olds conform to majority opinion in public but not in private (Haun & Tomasello, 2011). Five-year-olds cheat less if told that others think positively of them (Fu et al., 2016) and will share more when they are doing so publicly (Engelmann et al., 2017).

While these findings suggest children modify their behavior in light of social norms when watched, it is unclear whether children will do so when another’s evaluations conflict with their own natural tendencies or desires. In one relevant study, toddlers modified how they pressed buttons to activate a toy after learning about an onlooker’s preferences (Botto & Rochat, 2018). However, in this study children could still satisfy their desire to press buttons while avoiding the button the experimenter negatively evaluated when watched.

In the reported study, we examined whether young children modify the amount of time they play with attractive toys with unique affordances in light of an observer’s evaluations. Fifty-one 3- to 5-year-old children (7 three-year-olds, 26 four-year-olds, and 18 five-year-olds) from middle-class families in the mid-Atlantic U.S. East Coast (M age=4.7 years; 23 females; 69% White) completed 2 trials in which they were presented with a set of 3 simple toys on a tray. An experimenter demonstrated each toy’s use and evaluated it positively (“Wow, isn’t that great?”), negatively (“Ugh, I don’t like that,”), or not at all. The experimenter then said, “Your turn!” and pushed the tray of toys towards the child. We manipulated, within subjects (across trials), whether or not the experimenter watched as children played with the toys. Demonstration, evaluation, and condition orders were counterbalanced.

While data collection is ongoing, we have not found evidence that children modify how they play with the toys when watched. Currently there is no interaction between condition and the amount of time children spend exploring positively- versus negatively-evaluated toys, b=-15.61, SE=12.62, t(48)=-1.24, p=.22. Children nominally spent more time playing with toys that were positively evaluated by the experimenter when watched versus not (M=11.96 sec) and less time with negatively-evaluated toys (M=-3.65 sec), but this pattern is not significant. There is no interaction with age. Children played less with the negatively-evaluated toy than the non-evaluated one regardless of being watched, b=12, SE=5.87, t(48)=2.06, p<.05. Interestingly, only 26% of children asked were able to correctly recall which toys were positively-evaluated while 78% correctly recalled which toys were negatively-evaluated, consistent with a negativity bias in learning (Vaish et al., 2008). Yet despite their relatively strong memory for the negatively-evaluated toy, there is limited evidence currently that they used this information to guide their behavior.

These findings suggest that although young children track others’ negative evaluations, they do not change their behavior in light of them. Reputation management may initially be limited situations involving social norms and that are in less conflict with children’s own desires.

Authors

• Nicole J. Stucke, George Mason University
  Presenting Author

• Sabine Doebel, George Mason University