Peer pressure already in kindergarten

Children are already in the kindergarten age compliant with the majority

10/26/2011

Kindergarten children are subject to peer pressure according to a study by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Even if children actually need to know better, they agree with the majority opinion of others. Peer pressure becomes particularly clear when children have to publicly declare their position in a round.

Compliant behavior in the group
Children behave conformistically within a group from the age of four. Who as a parent has his daughter or son stubbornly and self-determined, for example, in the choice of daily clothes or in the evening when brushing his teeth experienced rebellious, will hardly believe how „customized“ and „compliant“ her little ones often move within a larger group. Apparently, the presentation in a larger group for the social fabric of children is higher than the behavior towards trusted and trusted parents. This was demonstrated by a newly presented study by Daniel Haun and Michael Tomasello from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Child Development). In the course of a classical compliance experiment with 96 children, at the age of four, children appeared to bend to group dynamic pressure. This is true even if they actually need to know better at the moment of conformist behavior.

Experiment with picture books and family assignments
During the first course of study, the children, who were each divided into groups, were presented with apparently identical picture books with 30 double pages. The group size was a number of four children. Animal families were depicted on the left side of the book. On the right side were each a member of the family. The children had the task to assign each of the animals to the family, so mother, father, child.

The four-year-old was told that all books have the same structure and images. However, the researchers had only realized the same arrangement for three books. The fourth picture book showed a different picture on each of the right sides. Accordingly, the children had to come in the joint evaluation in the overall group in a contentual contradiction. In the question and answer session in the group, the children followed, though they knew better, in most cases the majority of the children. Of the total of 24 children with the prepared books, 18 children followed in most cases the majority opinion, contradicting their own experiences.

To secure the first result, the scientists undertook a second experimental setup. In the experiment, they investigated how this conformist behavior is triggered. Now the small subjects should recite the correct solution aloud or show the solution on the left side of the book a little more restricted and tap on the right family member. The nursery room was so outfitted that only the study director could see the show, but not the other children in the room. In this structure, a turn of events showed. Of the 18 minority children, 12 children followed the majority opinion when they had to recite the result within the group. If the children showed the result with only one finger, there were only eight children left, even if the other three spoke and said otherwise. The research group rated this result as a proof of how much social pressure works when one's own opinion has to be verbalized.

Opinion dynamics also works with adults
The social-psychological attempt is not the first in this field. Already the psychologist Solomon Asch had explored this phenomenon in a similar experimental setup the behavior of adults. In the study, the social psychologist prompted the subjects to accept the assessment of previously instructed participants. There were a number of people sitting at a conference table. A test person had to enter the room afterwards. This was in the belief that all other participants were not instructed and also participate in the experiment unbiased. In truth, everyone was privy, except for the single person who entered the room extra. On a screen, the group was shown a line. In addition to this reference line, three more lines were displayed. Now it was the task of all persons to estimate which line of the three is about the same length as the reference line. The initiated persons indicated that a line that was obviously not the same length corresponded to the length of the reference line. A majority of non-dedicated study participants shared the opinion of the majority, although it was obvious that the line was not the same length. This shows how in everyday life a dominant majority opinion becomes a fact, even if supposedly factual things are wrong. (Sb)

Image: Stephanie Hofschlaeger