I won't tell: Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets

Antonia Misch; Harriet Over; Malinda Carpenter

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016

I won't tell: Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets

Antonia Misch, Harriet Over, Malinda Carpenter

School of Psychology and Neuroscience

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Group loyalty is highly valued. However, little is known about young children’s loyal behavior. This study tested whether 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) remain loyal to their group even when betraying it would be materially advantageous. Children and four puppets were allocated to novel groups. Two of these puppets (either in-group or out-group members) then told children a group secret and urged them not to disclose the secret. Another puppet (not assigned to either group) then bribed children with stickers to tell the secret. Across ages, children were significantly less likely to reveal the secret in the in-group condition than in the out-group condition. Thus, even young children are willing to pay a cost to be loyal to their group.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	96-106
Journal	Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Volume	142
Early online date	26 Oct 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016
Publication status	Published - Feb 2016

Keywords

Loyalty
Group membership
Group norms
Secrecy
Commitment
Minimal group paradigm

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10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016

Misch et al_in press_accepted version_Children's Loyalty
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016
Accepted author manuscript, 459 KB

Cite this

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title = "I won't tell: Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets",

abstract = "Group loyalty is highly valued. However, little is known about young children{\textquoteright}s loyal behavior. This study tested whether 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) remain loyal to their group even when betraying it would be materially advantageous. Children and four puppets were allocated to novel groups. Two of these puppets (either in-group or out-group members) then told children a group secret and urged them not to disclose the secret. Another puppet (not assigned to either group) then bribed children with stickers to tell the secret. Across ages, children were significantly less likely to reveal the secret in the in-group condition than in the out-group condition. Thus, even young children are willing to pay a cost to be loyal to their group.",

keywords = "Loyalty, Group membership, Group norms, Secrecy, Commitment, Minimal group paradigm",

author = "Antonia Misch and Harriet Over and Malinda Carpenter",

note = "Harriet Over was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/K006702/1). ",

year = "2016",

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doi = "10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016",

language = "English",

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T2 - Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets

AU - Misch, Antonia

AU - Over, Harriet

AU - Carpenter, Malinda

N1 - Harriet Over was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number ES/K006702/1).

PY - 2016/2

Y1 - 2016/2

N2 - Group loyalty is highly valued. However, little is known about young children’s loyal behavior. This study tested whether 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) remain loyal to their group even when betraying it would be materially advantageous. Children and four puppets were allocated to novel groups. Two of these puppets (either in-group or out-group members) then told children a group secret and urged them not to disclose the secret. Another puppet (not assigned to either group) then bribed children with stickers to tell the secret. Across ages, children were significantly less likely to reveal the secret in the in-group condition than in the out-group condition. Thus, even young children are willing to pay a cost to be loyal to their group.

AB - Group loyalty is highly valued. However, little is known about young children’s loyal behavior. This study tested whether 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) remain loyal to their group even when betraying it would be materially advantageous. Children and four puppets were allocated to novel groups. Two of these puppets (either in-group or out-group members) then told children a group secret and urged them not to disclose the secret. Another puppet (not assigned to either group) then bribed children with stickers to tell the secret. Across ages, children were significantly less likely to reveal the secret in the in-group condition than in the out-group condition. Thus, even young children are willing to pay a cost to be loyal to their group.

KW - Loyalty

KW - Group membership

KW - Group norms

KW - Secrecy

KW - Commitment

KW - Minimal group paradigm

UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096515002209#appd002

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DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.09.016

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VL - 142

SP - 96

EP - 106

JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

ER -

I won't tell: Young children show loyalty to their group by keeping group secrets

Abstract

Keywords

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