Children perpetuate competence-based inequality when they help peers

Abstract

Exchanges of help between children are common and often have positive consequences. But not all help is equally beneficial, for example because some help does not provide an opportunity to practice and develop skills. Here I examine whether young children might perpetuate competence-based inequality by providing incompetent peers with less opportunity to practice and improve their skills compared to competent peers. Study 1 (N = 253, 6–9 years) shows that young children understand not all help is equally beneficial: Children think that peers who receive empowerment (hints) vs. non-empowerment (correct answers) help can learn more. Study 2 (N = 80) and 3 (N = 41) then assessed children’s (7–9 years) actual helping behavior in a lab-based experiment. Through a cover story, participants were introduced to two unknown, same-age children whom they later overheard were either good or not good at solving puzzles (Study 2) or math (Study 3). Subsequently, participants got to help both of them with a puzzle-quiz (Study 2) or a math-quiz (Study 3) by providing either empowerment or non-empowerment when they asked for help. Across both studies, children were more likely to provide empowerment help to competent peers, and non-empowerment help to incompetent peers. This work suggests that when young children perceive differences in competence (e.g., based on stereotypes), they contribute to maintaining the status quo by providing the most vulnerable students, that would profit the most from improving their skills, less opportunity to do so.

Using social and behavioral science to address achievement inequality

“…Yet, even in classrooms, children might be treated differently based on their SES. Three studies in our collection—Renoux et al 12 , Schoneveld and Brummelman 13 , and Sierksma 14 —address this possibility. They demonstrate that children from low-SES backgrounds may face unequal treatment in the classroom, often at the hands of well-intentioned teachers or peers, with serious repercussions.…”

“…Third, once children are stereotyped as being less smart, they may be treated by classmates in ways that perpetuate their presumed lack of smartness. Integrating theories from social and developmental psychology, Sierksma 14 demonstrated that children might perpetuate competence-based inequality by offering disempowering help (i.e., help that does not offer recipients an opportunity to practice and improve their skills, such as providing the right answer rather than a hint). In two preregistered experiments, children were introduced to two peers whom they later overheard were either good or not so good at a task.…”