Department of Psychology, University of Illinois.
Department of Psychology, New York University.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2019 Jul;148(7):1153-1168. doi: 10.1037/xge0000567. Epub 2019 Feb 18.
Concepts of national groups (e.g., Americans, Canadians) are an important source of identity and meaning in people's lives. Here, we provide a developmental investigation of these concepts. Across 3 studies involving 5- to 8-year-olds and adults in the United States, we found that (a) compared with older children and adults, young children were more likely to think that national groups have a biological basis, but that (b) other aspects of national group concepts-such as the idea that national group membership is stable and informative about a person-changed less with development. Moreover, with age, the notion that membership in a national group is a meaningful fact about a person (vs. a mere formality) began to link up with attitudes that rationalized the national ingroup's economic advantages and portrayed it as superior to national outgroups. This work contributes to theory on the development of social cognition and provides a unique source of insight into current political trends. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
民族群体（如美国人、加拿大人）的概念是人们生活中身份和意义的重要来源。在这里，我们对这些概念进行了发展研究。在涉及美国 5 至 8 岁儿童和成年人的 3 项研究中，我们发现：（a）与年龄较大的儿童和成年人相比，幼儿更倾向于认为民族群体具有生物学基础，但（b）民族群体概念的其他方面——例如民族群体成员身份稳定且能反映一个人的信息——随发展变化较小。此外，随着年龄的增长，一个人属于一个民族群体是一个有意义的事实（而不仅仅是一种形式）的观念开始与合理化民族内群体经济优势并将其描绘为优于民族外群体的态度联系起来。这项工作有助于社会认知发展理论，并为当前政治趋势提供了独特的见解。
