Conformity of Children in an Ambiguous Perceptual Situation

Developmental trajectory of social influence integration into perceptual decisions in children

“…At an anecdotal level, children in our study would at times interact with the advisor by addressing the on-screen advisor, offering comments about the advisor and how reliable they were, thus treating the on-screen advisor as another person. Furthermore, in common with many earlier social influence studies, we found that the effect of social information on perceptual decisions was most apparent when sensory information was ambiguous (14, 51, 52), despite the fact that observers cannot readily distinguish ambiguous and unambiguous SFM figures as used here (53).…”

“…When children were making perceptual decisions about stereomotion figures, social influence biased perceptual decisions systematically across different stimulus levels (ambiguous and unambiguous) from early adolescence. This seems at odds with earlier research indicating that conformity to unambiguous stimuli decreased between the ages of 3 and 10 y (14, 54), while across the same period, conformity to ambiguous stimuli increased (14, 52). Considering these studies together with our data suggests that, although normative influence/group pressure appears to exert an effect at an earlier age, informational social influence may work through a different mechanism, which becomes more prominent later in development.…”

“…While a number of previous studies have provided evidence for sensitivity to social influence during childhood (e.g., refs. 14, 43, and 44), our study found a relatively later onset of social influence on perceptual decisions. When comparing social influence studies, it is important to consider that different scenarios are often used to induce social influence and that there are differences in the nature and difficulty of the tasks children are asked to complete.…”

“…Children below the age of 7 y (and as young as 3 y) are able to make judgments about socially delivered information, preferring the more accurate and reliable advisor (12) and modify their judgments accordingly (13). However, there are also developmental differences in conforming to a group consensus: whereas 7-y-olds already use social information in both public and private perceptual decisions, they do so to a lesser extent than 10- and 13-y-olds or adults (14). Furthermore, the type of advisor can affect the degree of conformity such that teenagers are more influenced by their peers than by adults when assessing risky decisions (15), but it is unclear how this advisor-related pattern of social influence changes more generally across development.…”

Early Childhood Experiences and Women's Achievement Motives

“…Even if the differences we have described are definitely established, it will still need to be shown that this pattern of parental protectiveness and insufficient independence training is a major contributor to an inadequate sense of personal competence in girls. It should be pointed out, however, that this inference is consistent with the findings that girls are more anxious than boys, more likely to underestimate their abilities, and more apt to lack confidence in their own judgment when it is contrary to that of others (Sarason, 1963;Sarason & Harmatz, 1965;Sears, 1964;Crandall, Katkovsky, & Preston, 1962; Hamm 8c Hoving, 1969). There is also evidence that the above pattern is reinforced by the later socialization experiences of girls.…”