Poster #27 - Developmental shift in children's reasoning regarding the effects of medical and folk treatments

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Cognitive Processes

Integrative Statement

Adults and school-aged children in the U.S. assumed effortful or painful treatments to be effective cures, while young children tended to consider effortless or painless treatments better predictors. The first purpose of the current paper was to examine if this developmental trend would be observed in a Japanese sample. The second purpose was to reveal cultural differences between the U.S. and Japan. In social psychology, American and Japanese cultures have been characterized as having divergent views of the self. It has been found that the Japanese are more likely than Americans to emphasize the effort taken to change personal traits. This suggests that the Japanese sample would be more likely than the American sample to consider effortful treatments more effective.
Study 1 asked 15 children aged 5-7 years (M age = 6.3), 16 children aged 8-10 years (M age = 9.1), and 15 adults (M age = 21.5) to judge whether painful (e.g., repulsive and malodorous oral liquid medicine) and effortful (e.g., medicine that involves keeping an empty stomach for several hours before and after taking it) medical interventions are more or less likely to result in faster healing. The youngest children (5-7 years) tended to believe that painless medicines would be more effective than painful ones. The older children (8-10 years) and adults were more likely to believe that painful/effortful medicines would be more effective than painless/non-effortful ones. In comparison with data from an American study (Lockhart & Keil, 2018), the scores for effortful medicines were significantly higher. In addition, the Japanese sample often justified their responses in terms of mind-body interdependence (e.g., “Since this person can continue to try, he could overcome his illness because of his strong spirit.”)
Study 1 focused on Western treatments such as medications, creams, and injections, while Study 2 examined Japanese folk remedies that have been passed on through the generations. In Study 2, 21 children aged 5-7 years (M age = 6.5), 20 children aged 8-10 years (M age = 9.3), and 18 adults (M age = 22.0) judged painful/effortful folk remedies to be more effective than painless/ non-effortful ones. Six stories from Study 1 were used. In Study 2, the story character visited an old man of his community, instead of a doctor (Study 1), and was given folk treatments such as a hot-water cure and a medicinal herb. As in Study 1, the youngest children believed that painless folk remedies would be more effective, while the older children and adults assumed that effortful remedies would be more effective than non-effortful ones.
The studies displayed a pattern. Irrespective of whether they were Western medical treatments or folk remedies, younger children believed that treatments were more effective when they were painless and did not require effort. In contrast, older children and adults saw effort and pain, especially the former, as related to greater efficacy. Concerning cultural differences, the Japanese sample in the current paper consistently tended to place more importance on effort than did the Americans in the previous study.

Author

• Noriko Toyama, Waseda University
  Presenting Author