Developmental Comparisons of Conformity across Two Cultures

Sistrunk, Frank; Clement, David E.; Guenther, Zenita C.

doi:10.2307/1127802

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…For instance, members of cultures that strongly emphasize obedience (e.g., African American, Asian) or of those that stress respect for authority, cooperation, and community (e.g., Asian, Hispanic) may be more likely to copy the actions of an adult model, even if they are questionable, than would members of a culture that emphasizes independence (e.g., Caucasian American) (see Brody & Flor, 1998;Brody, Stoneman, & Flor, 1996;Jose, Huntsinger, Huntsinger, & Liaw, 2000;Wu et al, 2002). Some evidence does exist suggesting that non-Caucasian children are more likely to conform (Corriveau & Harris, 2010;Sistrunk, Clement, & Guenther, 1971) and to cooperate (Mejia-Arauz, Rogoff, Dexter, & Najafi, 2007;MejiaArauz, Rogoff, & Paradise, 2005) than are Caucasian children. Thus, future studies could present these tasks to children of different cultures and, perhaps, should also systematically vary the cultural background of the model in order to explore cross-cultural similarities and differences in the rate of imitation of questionable actions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking good versus doing good: Which factors take precedence when children learn about new tools?

DiYanni

Nini

Rheel

2011

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking good versus doing good: Which factors take precedence when children learn about new tools?

DiYanni

Nini

Rheel

2011

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…While there is now substantial evidence that children from several societies show conformity (Bishop & Beckman, 1971; Corriveau et al, 2013; Corriveau & Harris, 2010; Costanzo & Shaw, 1966; Flynn et al, 2018; Hanayama & Mori, 2011; Kagan, 1974; E. B. Kim et al, 2016; Sistrunk et al, 1971; Walker & Andrade, 1996; Zhang et al, 2017), study results are contradictory concerning its developmental trajectory (Haun et al, 2013).…”

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confidence: 96%

“…B. Kim et al, 2016). Thereafter, however, the evidence is more ambiguous: decreasing conformity (Bishop & Beckman, 1971; Hanayama & Mori, 2011; Sistrunk et al, 1971; Walker & Andrade, 1996), increasing conformity (Costanzo & Shaw, 1966; Sistrunk et al, 1971) as well as stable levels of conformity (Hanayama & Mori, 2011; Sistrunk et al, 1971) were associated with increasing age in middle childhood, that is in primary school-age children between 5 and 12 years (see in the online supplemental materials for details of the studies). The present study was designed to explore variation in conformity over the course of middle childhood in terms of underlying informational and normative motivations, and also in terms of possible intracultural variability in these age patterns.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Conformity decreases throughout middle childhood among ni-Vanuatu children: An intracultural comparison.

Sibilsky¹,

Colleran²,

McElreath³

et al. 2021

Developmental Psychology

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Multiple studies have shown that children conform to majorities in perceptual judgment tasks against their better knowledge. However, these studies report contradictory results about how conformity develops over age. Here, we study variation in conformity over the course of middle childhood: we examined potential informational and normative motivations underlying conformity, as well as intracultural variability in their age patterns. We measured conformity in both a public and a private setting among 5-to 11-year-olds from eight different communities in Vanuatu (n = 125, 59 boys), a highly diverse society in the South Pacific. We also explored whether selected sociodemographic variables help to explain individual variation in children's conformity. Conformity is lower in both public and private settings the older ni-Vanuatu children are, with conformity in public settings being subject to more developmental and intracultural variation. We infer that normative conformity is more variable than informational conformity. Moreover, we find that children in higher school classes conform less. Our study combines a developmental perspective with an intracultural comparison, and demonstrates that both the publicness of the experimental situation and intracultural variability are important for the understanding of the age patterns of conformity.

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“…American and Brazilian cultures have been described as different in aspects such as conformism (Sistrunk, Glement, & Guenther, 1971), as well as ideological and political perspectives on care and education during childhood (Freitas, Sherry, & Tudge, 2008). Also, preschoolers in these two countries exhibit different patterns of engagement in typical daily activities with adults and peers: children from Greensboro (NC-USA) are more prone to engage in complex talking about past and future situations and to request or elicit information to their social world than Brazilian children (Tudge et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A cross-cultural study: Empathy and role-taking in Brazilian and American children

Sampaio

2017

Univ Psychol

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a RESUMENEstudios anteriores mostraron avances en la toma de perspectiva y la empatía a lo largo de la infancia, y sugieren la existencia de relaciones entre estas variables y los aspectos de la cultura. El estudio presentado aquí investigó la relación entre empatía y toma de perspectiva en una muestra compuesta por niños brasileños y estadounidenses, entre 6 y 13 años de edad. En el método, se utilizo el Índice de Empatía para Niños y Adolescentes -IECA (Bryant, 1982) y una tarea de toma de perspectiva (Flavell, 1968). Los resultados mostraron que los niños estadounidenses obtuvieron un puntaje más alto en la toma de perspectiva que los participantes brasileños. Por otro lado, los niños brasileños obtuvieron calificaciones más altas en empatía que los estadounidenses. Los resultados se discuten considerando estudios transculturales previos sobre desarrollo social y cognitivo.Palabras clave niños; empatía; toma de perspectiva; Estados Unidos de América; Brasil. ABSTRACTPrevious studies have showed development in perspective-taking abilities and empathy along childhood, and suggested the existence of relationships between these variables and aspects of culture. The study presented here investigated the relationship between empathy and roletaking in a sample composed by American and Brazilian children, aged 6 to 13. The method involved the administration of the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescent -IECA (Bryant, 1982) and one Roletaking task. Results showed that American children scored higher in Role-taking than Brazilian participants. On the other hand, Brazilian children scored higher in empathy than American participants. Results are discussed considering previous cross-cultural studies on social and cognitive development.

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Developmental Comparisons of Conformity across Two Cultures

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

Looking good versus doing good: Which factors take precedence when children learn about new tools?

Looking good versus doing good: Which factors take precedence when children learn about new tools?

Conformity decreases throughout middle childhood among ni-Vanuatu children: An intracultural comparison.

A cross-cultural study: Empathy and role-taking in Brazilian and American children

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