Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>From an early age, children recognize that people belong to social groups. However, not all groups are structured in the same way. The current study asked whether children recognize and distinguish among different decision-m...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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MIT Press - Journals
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145505 |
| _version_ | 1811081720464670720 |
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| author | Thomas, Ashley J. Mitchell, Vivian Sumner, Emily Terrizzi, Brandon F. Piff, Paul K. Sarnecka, Barbara W. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Thomas, Ashley J. Mitchell, Vivian Sumner, Emily Terrizzi, Brandon F. Piff, Paul K. Sarnecka, Barbara W. |
| author_sort | Thomas, Ashley J. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>From an early age, children recognize that people belong to social groups. However, not all groups are structured in the same way. The current study asked whether children recognize and distinguish among different decision-making structures. If so, do they prefer some decision-making structures over others? In these studies, children were told stories about two groups that went camping. In the hierarchical group, one character made all the decisions; in the egalitarian group, each group member made one decision. Without being given explicit information about the group’s structures, 6- to 8-year-old children, but not 4- and 5-year-old children, recognized that the two groups had different decision-making structures and preferred to interact with the group where decision-making was shared. Children also inferred that a new member of the egalitarian group would be more generous than a new member of the hierarchical group. Thus, from an early age, children’s social reasoning includes the ability to compare social structures, which may be foundational for later complex political and moral reasoning.</jats:p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:51:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/145505 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:51:06Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | MIT Press - Journals |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1455052022-09-27T22:22:35Z Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power Thomas, Ashley J. Mitchell, Vivian Sumner, Emily Terrizzi, Brandon F. Piff, Paul K. Sarnecka, Barbara W. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>From an early age, children recognize that people belong to social groups. However, not all groups are structured in the same way. The current study asked whether children recognize and distinguish among different decision-making structures. If so, do they prefer some decision-making structures over others? In these studies, children were told stories about two groups that went camping. In the hierarchical group, one character made all the decisions; in the egalitarian group, each group member made one decision. Without being given explicit information about the group’s structures, 6- to 8-year-old children, but not 4- and 5-year-old children, recognized that the two groups had different decision-making structures and preferred to interact with the group where decision-making was shared. Children also inferred that a new member of the egalitarian group would be more generous than a new member of the hierarchical group. Thus, from an early age, children’s social reasoning includes the ability to compare social structures, which may be foundational for later complex political and moral reasoning.</jats:p> 2022-09-19T18:21:05Z 2022-09-19T18:21:05Z 2022 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2470-2986 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145505 Thomas, Ashley J., Mitchell, Vivian, Sumner, Emily, Terrizzi, Brandon F., Piff, Paul K. et al. 2022. "Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power." 6. 10.1162/opmi_a_00053 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf MIT Press - Journals MIT Press |
| spellingShingle | Thomas, Ashley J. Mitchell, Vivian Sumner, Emily Terrizzi, Brandon F. Piff, Paul K. Sarnecka, Barbara W. Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power |
| title | Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power |
| title_full | Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power |
| title_fullStr | Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power |
| title_short | Intuitive Sociology: Children Recognize Decision-Making Structures and Prefer Groups With Less-Concentrated Power |
| title_sort | intuitive sociology children recognize decision making structures and prefer groups with less concentrated power |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/145505 |
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