About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 20. Social Cognition

Abstract

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There is a critical need to evaluate how biased beliefs against other social groups are learned in early childhood. This study focused on two mechanisms of social learning—parents’ direct and indirect testimony—in how they can lead 4-to-7-year-old children to endorse and transmit negative biases against novel social groups. In a pre-registered study, we hypothesized that: 1) parents’ direct and indirect testimony will both lead children to endorse negative beliefs and attitudes towards a novel social group (“Zorches”), 2) children in the direct testimony condition will transmit negative information more than children in the indirect testimony condition, and 3) these negative beliefs will persist over 2-weeks, especially for older children. A sample of 4- to 7-year-olds (N=110; Mage = 5.978, 52.7% Female, 85.5% White) and their primary caregiver were invited to the lab where they learned four negative pieces of information about Zorches, either through parents’ direct testimony (following a brief script) or through indirect testimony (pointing in response to experimenter questions). Children were asked to endorse parents’ testimony both verbally and non-verbally, to evaluate their moral worth, and their capacity for friendship. Children were also invited back (via Zoom) after 2-weeks and asked the same questions to assess how their beliefs about Zorches may have changed. To assess our first hypothesis, we found that children who learned through direct testimony endorsed negative beliefs towards Zorches more than those who learned through indirect non-verbal testimony (verbal endorsement (t(67) = 5.068, p < .001). In addition, we found a significant interaction between age and condition for children’s verbal and non-verbal endorsements: In the direct testimony condition, children increasingly endorsed negative beliefs towards Zorches with age, whereas in the indirect testimony condition children decreased their endorsement of negative beliefs with age (see Figure 1 for verbal endorsement (F(3, 78) = 12.95, p <.001); see Figure 2 for non-verbal endorsement (F(3, 91) = 5.79, p = 0.001). Further, children who learned through direct testimony more negatively evaluated the group’s moral worth (t(118) = 6.309, p <.001) and their capacity for friendship (t(111) = 5.342, p <.001) than children who learned through indirect testimony. For our second hypothesis, we found significant condition differences in the valence of information children transmitted such that children in the direct testimony condition shared negative information whereas children in the indirect condition shared more positive or neutral information (Χ²(1) = 27.899, p < .001). Lastly, for our third hypothesis, children’s in-lab verbal and non-verbal endorsement scores predicted their verbal (F(4, 47) = 28.61, p<.001) and non-verbal endorsements (F(4, 73) = 21.41, p <.001) two weeks later, demonstrating that their initial judgment of Zorches have persisting effects over time. Findings underscore the harmful and long-term effects of explicitly biased statements from parents. Furthermore, younger children seem especially vulnerable to both direct and indirect testimony. Findings will be discussed in terms of potential sources of risk and resilience towards parents’ biased beliefs when learning through testimony.

Author information

Author	Role
Ms. Yeon Ju Suh, University of Minnesota	Presenting author
Charisse B. Pickron, University of Minnesota	Non-presenting author
Melissa A. Koenig, University of Minnesota	Non-presenting author

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