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Building representations of the social world: Children extract patterns from social choices to reason about multi‐group hierarchies

https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13366

Heck, Isobel A. ; Kushnir, Tamar ; Kinzler, Katherine D. ( February 2023 , Developmental Science)

Abstract

How do children learn about the structure of the social world? We tested whether children would extract patterns from an agent's social choices to make inferences about multiple groups’ relative social standing. In Experiment 1, 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children (N = 36; tested in Central New York) saw an agent and three groups (Group‐A,Group‐B, andGroup‐C) and observed the agent choose between pairs of individuals from different groups. Across pairwise selections, a pattern emerged: The agent chose individuals fromGroup‐A > Group‐B > Group‐C. Children tracked the agent's choices to predict thatGroup‐Awas “most‐preferred” and the “leader” and thatGroup‐Cwas “least‐preferred” and the “helper.” In Experiments 2 and 3, we examined children's reasoning about a more complex pattern involving four groups and tested a wider age range. In Experiment 2, 5‐ to 10‐year‐old children (N = 98; tested in Central New York) used the agent's pattern of pairwise choices to infer that the agent likedGroup‐A > Group‐B > Group‐C > Group‐Dand to make predictions about which groups were likely to be “leaders” and “helpers.” In Experiment 3, we found evidence for social specificity in children's reasoning: 5‐ to 10‐year‐old children (N = 96; from 26 US States) made inferences about groups’ relativesocialbut notphysicalpower from the agent's pattern of affiliative choices across the four groups. These findings showcase a mechanism through which children may learn about societal‐level hierarchies through the patterns they observe over time in people's group‐based social choices.

Research Highlights

Children in our sample extracted patterns from an agent's positive social choices between multiple groups to reason about groups’ relative social standing.

Children used the pattern of an agent's positive social choices to guide their reasoning about which groups were likely to be “leaders” and “helpers” in a fictional town.

The pattern that emerged in an agent's choices of friends shaped children's thinking about groups’ relativesocialbut notphysicalpower.

Children tracked social choices to reason about group‐based hierarchies at the individual level (which groups an agent prefers) and societal level (which groups are privileged).