Previous research has indicated that children perceive social category members as having intrinsic obligations toward each other, which shape their expectations for social interactions. However, it is unclear whether teenagers (aged 13 to 15) and young adults (aged 19 to 21) continue to hold such beliefs, given their increased experience with group dynamics and external social rules. To explore this question, three experiments were conducted with a total of 360 participants (N = 180 for each age group). Experiment 1 examined negative social interactions using different methods in two sub‐experiments, while Experiment 2 focused on positive social interactions to examine whether participants viewed social category members as intrinsically obligated to avoid harming each other and to offer assistance. Results revealed that teenagers evaluated within‐group harm and non‐help as unacceptable, regardless of external rules, whereas they viewed between‐group harm and non‐help as both acceptable and unacceptable, depending on the presence of external rules. Conversely, young adults considered both within‐group and between‐group harm/non‐help as more acceptable if an external rule permitted such behavior. These findings suggest that teenagers believe that members of a social category are intrinsically obligated to help and not harm each other, whereas young adults believe that individual social interactions are constrained mainly by external rules. That is, teenagers hold stronger beliefs than young adults about intrinsic interpersonal obligations to group members. Thus, in‐group moral obligations and external rules contribute differently to the evaluation and interpretation of social interactions at different developmental stages.
The sources of social exclusion are very wide, ranging from the closest people to strangers. However, current studies mainly reveal the electrophysiological characteristics of social exclusion by means of binary comparison between social exclusion and social inclusion, and lack of in-depth analysis of the differences caused by different sources of exclusion. In this study, a static passing ball paradigm system including close and distant relationship identity information was used to reveal the electrophysiological characteristics of individuals when they were excluded by people with different close and distant relationships. The results showed that there was a degree effect of P2, P3a, and LPC components when individuals were excluded by people with different close and distant relationships. Specifically, the amplitude of P2, P3a, and LPC components was larger when individuals were excluded by more distant people. The results indicated that individuals would become more alert and perceive stronger exclusion experience when they were excluded by more distant people, which provided more diversified evidence for the conclusion that electrophysiological components were larger under the condition of exclusion, and revealed the electrophysiological basis behind the multiple motivation models. The results also helped to explain the physiological reasons behind individuals’ different coping behaviors toward excluder with different importance of relationship.
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