Children explain in- and out-group behavior differently

Francine Essa; Anika Weinsdörfer; Reut Shilo; Gil Diesendruck; Hannes Rakoczy

doi:10.1111/sode.12499

Children explain in- and out-group behavior differently

Francine Essa
, Anika Weinsdörfer
, Reut Shilo
, Gil Diesendruck
, Hannes Rakoczy

Department of Psychology

University of Göttingen

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

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Adults manifest a number of attributional biases in explaining the behavior of in- versus out-group members. The present study investigated the developmental origins of such biased explanation. Children from majority and minority populations in Israel, and from majority populations in Germany (N = 165), were asked to explain the behavior of in- and out-group members. Across ages and groups, children more often referred to group membership when explaining an out-group as compared to an in-group member’s behavior; and more often to individual factors when explaining an in-group as compared to an out-group member’s behavior. These findings are consistent with the early emergence of fundamental differences in the conceptualizations of in- and out-group members.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	684-696
Number of pages	13
Journal	Social Development
Volume	30
Issue number	3
Early online date	Jan 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12499
State	Published - Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Funding

We would like to thank all children who participated as well as their parents. We also like to thank Marlen Kaufmann and Konstanze Schirmer for helping to recruit children in Germany, and Yara Nassir for helping recruit Arab children in Israel. This work was funded by the German‐Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF) – Grant No: _I‐101‐105.2‐2014_. The work of Anika Weinsdörfer further was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – Project number 254142454 / GRK 2070. The work of Reut Shilo was further supported by a Bar‐Ilan University President’s Fellowship.

Funders	Funder number
German‐Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	254142454 / GRK 2070
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development	_I‐101‐105.2‐2014_

Keywords

behavior explanation
cross-cultural comparison
majority-minority children
social categories

Access to Document

10.1111/sode.12499

Cite this

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Children explain in- and out-group behavior differently

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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