Young Children Enforce Social Norms
Current Directions in Psychological Science 21 (4):232-236 (2012)
Authors | |
Abstract |
Social norms have played a key role in the evolution of human cooperation, serving to stabilize prosocial and egalitarian behavior despite the self-serving motives of individuals. Young children’s behavior mostly conforms to social norms, as they follow adult behavioral directives and instructions. But it turns out that even preschool children also actively enforce social norms on others, often using generic normative language to do so. This behavior is not easily explained by individualistic motives; it is more likely a result of children’s growing identification with their cultural group, which leads to prosocial motives for preserving its ways of doing things.
|
Keywords | young children social norms norm enforcement social cognition normativity cooperation conventionality |
Categories | (categorize this paper) |
Options |
![]() ![]() ![]() |
Download options
References found in this work BETA
No references found.
Citations of this work BETA
Internalized Norms and Intrinsic Motivations: Are Normative Motivations Psychologically Primitive?Daniel Kelly - 2020 - Emotion Researcher 1 (June):36-45.
The Paradox of Social Interaction: Shared Intentionality, We-Reasoning, and Virtual Bargaining.Nick Chater, Hossam Zeitoun & Tigran Melkonyan - 2022 - Psychological Review 129 (3):415-437.
Young Children Understand and Defend the Entitlements of Others.Marco F. H. Schmidt, Hannes Rakoczy & Michael Tomasello - forthcoming - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
Imitative Flexibility and the Development of Cultural Learning.Cristine H. Legare, Nicole J. Wen, Patricia A. Herrmann & Harvey Whitehouse - 2015 - Cognition 142:351-361.
View all 22 citations / Add more citations
Similar books and articles
Young Children Attribute Normativity to Novel Actions Without Pedagogy or Normative Language.Marco F. H. Schmidt, Hannes Rakoczy & Michael Tomasello - 2011 - Developmental Science 14 (3):530-539.
Social Norms and the Indirect Evolution of Conditional Cooperation.Mathias Spichtig & Christian Traxler - unknown
Deceitful Behaviour in Situation Comedy: Effects on Children's Perception of Social Reality.C. E. Tidhar & S. Peri - 1988 - Journal of Moral Education 16 (2):61-76.
Becoming Status Conscious: Children's Appreciation of Social Reality.Charles Kalish - 2005 - Philosophical Explorations 8 (3):245 – 263.
Computer-Mediated Communication and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas: An Experimental Analysis.Cristina Bicchieri & Azi Lev-On - 2007 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 6 (2):139-168.
Norms, Preferences, and Conditional Behavior.Cristina Bicchieri - 2010 - Politics, Philosophy and Economics 9 (3):297-313.
Choosy Moral Punishers.Christine Clavien, Colby Tanner, Fabrice Clément & Michel Chapuisat - 2012 - PLoS ONE.
Evolutionary Precursors of Social Norms in Chimpanzees: A New Approach.Claudia Rudolf von Rohr, Judith M. Burkart & Carel P. van Schaik - 2011 - Biology and Philosophy 26 (1):1-30.
Let’s Pretend!: Children and Joint Action.Deborah Tollefsen - 2005 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 35 (1):75-97.
Analytics
Added to PP index
2012-07-26
Total views
58 ( #195,975 of 2,505,136 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #417,030 of 2,505,136 )
2012-07-26
Total views
58 ( #195,975 of 2,505,136 )
Recent downloads (6 months)
1 ( #417,030 of 2,505,136 )
How can I increase my downloads?
Downloads