About this session

Saturday, 10:20 AM - 11:50 AM

How we decide together: Children’s reasoning about group decision-making structures

Groups are a ubiquitous part of human social life, and the decisions made at the group level shape our interactions and choices every day. Decision-making structures in groups can vary greatly, ranging from hierarchical to collaborative, from exclusive to inclusive models. Although much of developmental psychology has explored the ways children think about groups themselves (e.g., membership, affiliation, and other relational aspects), comparatively less work has examined children’s beliefs about how decisions are made within groups. Understanding this reveals how children perceive group structures broadly, and also sheds light on their sense of fairness and morality in decision-making. The present symposium brings together perspectives across three labs to shed light on how children reason about group decision-making structures across different contexts.

The first talk examines how children think about power and resource imbalances within groups. The second talk examines how different compensation systems (merit-based versus egalitarian) affect inferences about group climate and interpersonal relationships. The third talk examines children’s evaluations of different decision-making between universalist (where everyone gets to decide) versus exclusive (where only some people get to decide) procedures.

Together, these talks provide novel insights into children’s beliefs about different decision-making structures, both when they think different decision-making structures should be used (Talk 1 and Talk 3) and what children infer about the individuals or outcomes based on these structures (Talk 2 and Talk 3). These beliefs not only reflect how children understand group decision-making but may also ultimately shape the leaders and decision-makers of tomorrow.

Paper #1
Title	What should change? How children think groups should redistribute power
Presenting author	Mack Briscoe, Harvard University, United States

Paper #2
Title	Reasoning about Merit-Based and Egalitarian Compensation Systems: Implications for Group Dynamics
Presenting author	Shuai Shao, UCSD, United States

Paper #3
Title	Who Should Have a Voice?: Children’s Evaluations of Universalist Versus Exclusive Group Decision-making
Presenting author	Hannah Hok Kim, MIT, United States

View all paper details

Session chair
Hannah Hok Kim, MIT, United States

Discussant
Dr. Yarrow C. Dunham, Ed.D., Yale University, United States

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