Where Loyalties Lie: Children’s Beliefs About Loyalty to Authorities

• In Event: Poster Session 05
  In Poster Session: PS 05 Topic - Social Cognition

Abstract

Young children are often loyal to in-group members (Misch, Over, & Carpenter, 2014) and they view loyalty as an important aspect of friendship (Liberman & Shaw, 2019). However, it is unclear whether children understand that loyalty to a powerful individual can be advantageous. In the current study, we present children with scenarios where a “worker” must to choose between another worker or a “boss,” see Figure 1. These scenarios involve both loyalty (e.g. side taking in arguments) and preference (e.g. going to the movies together), and children selected who the worker should choose in each scenario. We tested 38 3- to 5-year-olds, 38 6- to 8-year-olds, 12 9- to 10-year-olds, and 18 adults. A 2 (Question Type: Loyalty and Preference) X 4 (Age Group) mixed factorial ANOVA resulted in significant main effects of Question Type, F(1,102)=26.55, p<.001, η2p=.21 and Age Group, F(3,102)=2.93, p=.037, η2p=.08, as well as an interaction between Question Type and Age Group, F(3,102)=7.47, p< .001, η2p=.18 (see Figure 2). Three- to 5-year-olds and 6- to 8-year-olds selected the boss as often as they did the worker for both Loyalty and Preference questions. In contrast, 9- to 10-year-olds and adults selected the boss for Loyalty questions, p=.003, and the worker for Preference questions, p<.001. Further when making selections about Loyalty, the youngest age group significantly differed from the oldest children, p=.038, and adults, p<.001, indicating that 9- and 10-year-olds and adults believed loyalty should be shown to bosses more than 3- to 5-year-olds. Comparisons to chance show that 3- to 5-year-olds selected the in-group member more than would be expected by chance for both question types, p’s<.004, while 6- to 8-year-olds were at chance. Nine and 10-year-olds selected the in-group member more than would be expected by chance for the Preference questions (p=.005) but were at chance for the loyalty questions. Adults selected the in-group member for the Preference questions and the boss for the Loyalty questions at rates that exceeded chance, p’s<.005. Overall, 3- to 5-year-olds believed that individuals would prefer and be loyal to in-group members, while 9- and 10-year-olds believed that people would prefer in-group members but be loyal to authority figures. Six- to 8-year-olds do not show preference for - or loyalty to - workers or bosses, suggesting that they were likely in a transitional stage of understanding. These results indicate that age and experience are required for children to value their group and at the same time adaptively show loyalty to powerful out-group authorities.

Authors

• Megan Norris, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Nicholaus Noles, University of Louisville
  Non-Presenting Author