1-160 - The influence of local norms on children’s beliefs and behavior: Three within-culture comparisons

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Cross-cultural comparisons reveal broad differences in children’s thinking and behavior across societies. Local norms are potential factors underlying these differences, but studies are needed to determine how and when these norms affect children. The three papers in this symposium use a range of methods to compare the effects of norms on groups within societies.

Paper 1 investigated how Hindu and Muslim children in India understand religious and moral norms for their own and the other group. Both Hindu and Muslim children believed that religious norms applied only to members of the religion and could be altered by a deity, but that moral norms applied broadly and could not be changed by gods. Paper 2 used ethnographic and experimental methods to examine cooperative behavior within two schools in China, one with strong norms of academic competition and one that de-emphasized competition. In two studies, 8-9-year olds from the more competitive school behaved in less cooperative ways compared to the other school in both a ball game and an economic experiment. Paper 3 describes an experiment in which children were given a “virtual tour” of two neighborhoods: one showing prosocial and the other antisocial behaviors. Exposure to these neighborhoods affected children’s beliefs about other cooperative norms, and their altruistic behavior toward the residents.

Together, these studies offer insights into how norms influence children within societies. Our discussant will consider how these studies inform causally rich theories of cross-cultural variation in development, drawing on lessons from the study of linguistic relativity.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Peter R Blake, Boston University

Discussant

• David Barner, University of California San Diego

Individual Presentations

• How do children reason about religious doctrines? Evidence from Hindu and Muslim children in India - Presenting Author: Mahesh Srinivasan, UC Berkeley; Elizabeth A Kaplan, UC Berkeley; Audun Dahl, University of California, Santa Cruz

• Norms of competition and cooperation in two Chinese schools: Ethnographic and experimental investigations - Presenting Author: Anni E Kajanus, London School of Economics; Katherine McAuliffe, Boston College; Felix Warneken, Harvard University; Peter R Blake, Boston University

• A virtual tour of two neighborhoods: Cross-norm inference affects children’s altruism - Presenting Author: Kari Britt Schroeder, Boston University; Laura J Nelson, Boston Children's Hospital; Peter R Blake, Boston University