I won't tell : Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets
Date
02/2016Keywords
Metadata
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Abstract
Group loyalty is highly valued. However, little is known about young children’s loyal behavior. This study tested whether 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) remain loyal to their group even when betraying it would be materially advantageous. Children and four puppets were allocated to novel groups. Two of these puppets (either in-group or out-group members) then told children a group secret and urged them not to disclose the secret. Another puppet (not assigned to either group) then bribed children with stickers to tell the secret. Across ages, children were significantly less likely to reveal the secret in the in-group condition than in the out-group condition. Thus, even young children are willing to pay a cost to be loyal to their group.
Citation
Misch , A , Over , H & Carpenter , M 2016 , ' I won't tell : Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets ' , Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , vol. 142 , pp. 96-106 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016
Publication
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-0965Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016
Description
Harriet Over was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/K006702/1).Collections
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