Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
Emory Infant and Child Lab, Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Br J Dev Psychol. 2018 Sep;36(3):438-451. doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12229. Epub 2017 Dec 18.
'Strong conformity' corresponds to the public endorsement of majority opinions that are in blatant contradiction to one's own correct perceptual judgements of the situation. We tested strong conformity inference by 3- and 5-year-old children using a third-person perspective paradigm. Results show that at neither age, children spontaneously expect that an ostracized third-party individual who wants to affiliate with the majority group will show strong conformity. However, when questioned as to what the ostracized individual should do to befriend others, from 5 years of age children explicitly demonstrate that they construe strong conformity as a strategic means of social affiliation. Additional data suggest that strong and strategic conformity understanding from an observer's third-person perspective is linked to the passing of the language-mediated false belief theory of mind task, an index of children's emerging 'meta' ability to construe the mental state of others. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? 'Strong conformity' corresponds to the public endorsement of majority opinions that are in blatant contradiction to one's own correct perceptual judgements of the situation. Asch's (1956, Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70, 1) classic demonstration of strong conformity with adults has been replicated with preschool children: 3- to 4-year-olds manifest signs of strong conformity by reversing about thirty to forty per cent of the time their correct perceptual judgements to fit with contradictory statements held unanimously by other individuals (Corriveau & Harris, 2010, Developmental Psychology, 46, 437; Corriveau et al., 2013, Journal of Cognition and Culture, 13, 367; Haun & Tomasello, 2011, Child Development, 82, 1759). As for adults, strong conformity does not obliterate children's own private, accurate knowledge of the situation. It is in essence a public expression to fit the group and alleviate social dissonance. What does this study add? In three experiments, we explored the developmental emergence in the preschool years of strong conformity inference from a third-person perspective. Results show that by 5 years of age, and not earlier, children begin to construe strong conformity as a strategy that someone should use to gain social affiliation, even though they do not anticipate that a third-party individual would necessarily resort to such strategy. Additional data suggest that strong and strategic conformity understanding from an observer's third-person perspective is linked to the passing of the language-mediated false belief theory of mind task.
“强烈从众”是指公开支持与自己对当前情况的正确感知判断明显矛盾的多数意见。我们通过第三人称视角范式，用 3 岁和 5 岁儿童测试了强烈从众推断。结果表明，在任何年龄，儿童都不会自发地期望被排斥的第三方个体想要加入多数群体时会表现出强烈的从众。然而，当被问到被排斥的个体应该怎么做才能与他人交朋友时，从 5 岁开始，儿童就明确表示，他们将强烈从众视为一种社交认同的策略手段。额外的数据表明，从观察者的第三人称视角理解强烈和策略性的从众与通过语言中介的错误信念心理理论任务有关，这是儿童正在出现的“元”能力的指标，即理解他人心理状态的能力。
关于这个主题，已知的是什么？“强烈从众”是指公开支持与自己对当前情况的正确感知判断明显矛盾的多数意见。Asch（1956）经典的成人强烈从众实验已被复制到学前儿童身上：3 至 4 岁的儿童在大约 30%到 40%的时间里，为了与其他个体一致的、明显违背自己正确感知判断的陈述保持一致，他们会表现出强烈从众的迹象（Corriveau & Harris，2010；Corriveau 等人，2013；Haun & Tomasello，2011）。与成年人一样，强烈从众并没有抹杀儿童对当前情况的私人、准确的认识。它本质上是一种为了适应群体和缓解社会不和谐而进行的公开表达。
这项研究有何新发现？在三项实验中，我们探索了学前儿童从第三人称视角推断强烈从众的发展出现。结果表明，到 5 岁时，而不是更早，儿童开始将强烈从众视为一种获得社会认同的策略，尽管他们不期望第三方个体必然会采取这种策略。额外的数据表明，从观察者的第三人称视角理解强烈和策略性的从众与通过语言中介的错误信念心理理论任务有关。
