How much does your child’s social group REALLY impact their moral behavior?

We already know that young children have a preference for other kids within their own social group but how much does this influence extend to? Is it enough for children to condemn antisocial behavior if they see it happening within their own group?

A recent report published in the journal Developmental Science, Professors Hetherington, Hendrickson & Koenig, illustrates that preschooler’s personal preference and social evaluations are flexible when presented with a group member behaving immorally.

The conducted experiment was an attempt to further on the conflict of interest created from previous studies, where “children prefer to learn from in-group members” against “children’s intergroup attitudes are bound to their moral (insight).”

To do this, Hetherington, Hendrickson & Koenig looked into 3 facets of the children’s behavior: ‘Personal Evaluations’, ‘Decision to Trust’, and ‘Behavioral Endorsements’. By understanding children’s ability to recognize immoral behavior within their own group, we can gain a greater insight into bullying and hopefully, help prevent harmful antisocial behaviors at an early onset.

In conducting this study, seventy-five preschoolers were assigned into a ‘social’ group, either red or blue (provided with the same colour shirt/wristband). They were then split into three different sub-groups, where they watched a video of both a red and blue group actor sitting across each other. All the videos involved the same scenario of one candy bar being given between the two actors:

1. Children saw a social group member refuse to share with the n0n-group member 2. Children saw a non-group member share with a group member 3. Children saw a moderator share the candy bar (used for comparison between the first two groups).

The three facets were then tested. Personal Evaluations - was tested by asking the kids to allocate 5 coins between the two actors and providing a rating on a 6-point scale. Selective Trust – involved the children deciding who they would prefer to go to when asked: “I wonder what’s inside this [box],” placed in front of them. Finally, Behavioral Endorsements –the preschoolers were asked twelve questions, equal parts asking if a social group member should act morally or aggressively within in-group and between-group contexts. The Personal Evaluation tests illustrated a strong decrease in likability for group members when they acted immorally and less-so when presented with moral out-group members. The selective trust tests were not significant, however did show a slight preference of preschoolers trusting their own group member and the Behavioral Endorsement test showed how children endorsed more social behaviors than aggressive regardless of the video they watched. The researcher’s sum up these confounding results, by categorizing the differences, stating that the preschooler’s learning decisions were based on “group affiliation” while their ability to like and have preference for people is driven by “moral behavior.” With this research we realize that in order to reduce anti-social behavior we need kids to reduce their group prejudices’. If kids can differentiate between moral and immoral behavior, outside of group learning contexts, they can help to eliminate it from the classrooms early.