Does children’s moral compass waver under social pressure? Using the conformity paradigm to test preschoolers’ moral and social-conventional judgments

Kim, Elizabeth B.; Chen, Chuansheng; Smetana, Judith G.; Greenberger, Ellen

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.006

Cited by 37 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…To conclude, we presented children and adolescents with a comic character suggesting how goods should be shared. This simple manipulation had a rather strong influence on participants' actual sharing decisions, similar to previous research that indicated that children readily learn from and conform to information presented by real-life or videotaped models, puppets, or drawings (e.g., Benozio & Diesendruck, 2016;Kim et al, 2016;Wood, Kendal, & Flynn, 2013b). Consistent with social learning theory (Bandura, 1977), our results demonstrate the power of models to influence children's and adolescents' fairness-related behavior, showing for the first time that the magnitude of this power depends on the match between model type (e.g., adult or peer) and developmental phase (e.g., child or adolescent).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…Based on Asch's () conformity experiments, preschoolers were presented with a peer majority who made unanimous but erroneous judgments. Of 4‐year‐olds, 40%–60% adapted their responses to those of the (incorrect) peer majority on visual and social‐conventional judgment tasks, despite knowing the correct solution (e.g., Haun & Tomasello, ; Kim, Chen, Smetana, & Greenberger, ). However, 60%–80% of preschoolers did not conform to a peer (or adult) majority when conformity contradicted a moral norm (Enesco, Sebastián‐Enesco, Guerrero, Quan, & Garijo, ; Engelmann, Herrmann, Rapp, & Tomasello, ).…”

Section: Influence Of Othersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Influence of Adult and Peer Role Models on Children’ and Adolescents’ Sharing Decisions

et al. 2017

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This study explores how the age (adult vs. peer) and the suggestion (to be fair vs. unfair) of models affect the sharing decisions of 9- and 12-year-olds (N = 365) from Italy and Singapore. Results demonstrate a developmental shift in the influence of models on children's and adolescents' sharing decisions in both cultures: Children's decisions were more affected by an adult model's suggestion than by that of a peer model, whereas the opposite was true for adolescents. Regardless of the models' influence, participants considered equal sharing to be the fair choice and reported being happier when their sharing decisions were generous. Our results highlight the crucial importance of social and developmental factors for the promotion of fairness judgments and emotions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Section: Influence Of Othersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Adult and Peer Role Models on Children’ and Adolescents’ Sharing Decisions

et al. 2017

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“…In an environment that is rife with unethical behaviour, it becomes increasingly difficult to make ethical decisions, or to objectively assess the implications of a decision (Van der Walt, Jonck & Sobayeni 2016). The findings relating to work-related scenarios however confirm claims that individuals generally develop a moral compass as they grow older (Kim et al 2016). This finding also resonates with Van der Walt et al's (2016) findings that there were statistically significant generational differences amongst Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y for certain facets of work ethics such as hard work and delay of gratification.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Ethical perceptions of employees in small retailing firms: A case of indigenous-owned fast-food outlets in Zimbabwe

Rambe

Ndofirepi

2017

SAJEMS

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Background: Although the subject of ethical business practices has a well-established tradition in large corporations where shareholder value maximisation is largely dependent on such entities’ conduct of good business ethics, its investigation in small businesses in agile, economically depressed economies such as that of Zimbabwe has targeted business owners and managers but excluded their employees. Given the middleman role that employees of emerging indigenous-owned retail firms play in the distribution chain from manufacturers to the consumers, the ethical perceptions of these employees are critical to the leveraging of businesses’ strategic orientations. Employees are the coal face of the firm, withering intense competition from these firms’ rivals and achieving the firms’ strategic orientations (profitability, market share, business growth and survival). In order to meet stakeholder expectations simultaneously largely depends on the ethical conduct of such employees.Aim: The overall aim of this study is to contribute to ethical theory and literature by demonstrating how employees’ ethical perceptions and behaviour shape the strategic orientations of the business. To achieve this aim, the study sought to: (1) establish the typical ethical dilemmas that employees of these retail firms faced in their daily tasks, (2) assess how they responded to these ethical challenges, (3) ascertain whether demographic factors such as age, level of education, gender and their position in the organisational hierarchy influence their reaction to ethical dilemmas; and (4) determine these employees’ overall perceptions of ethical issues within their organisations.Setting: The study was conducted on employees of an indigenous-owned fast-food firm operating in two cities in Zimbabwe.Methods: A survey was conducted on 108 employees working in two cities. A structured questionnaire was developed and administered to the employees.Results: The results suggested that a majority of the respondents were ethically conscious and could make ethical choices. In addition, most respondents deemed the ethical scenarios presented to them as morally wrong, suggesting that the surveyed employees wished to engage in ethical behaviour. However, while the respondents were deemed to be ethically astute in their individual capacities, they seemed to lack an in-depth knowledge of the ethical policies of their organisation.Conclusion: The study concludes that owners and managers of small firms should provide interventions to cascade ethical policy to the lower ranks of the organisation to enhance the ethical perception amongst employees of these firms. The study implication is that an institutional top-down approach is critical to embedding ethical sensitivity into employees without which employees may continue to speculate about the business ethics of their organisation.

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“…Although the paradigm used here is different from the one normally used in the field of social moral reasoning, our participants' choices across the trials suggest that they perceived conventions to be more modifiable than moral norms. Within a social conformity paradigm, Kim and colleagues () also found that children were much less susceptible to peer pressure when the issue dealt with hitting or teasing another child than when it had to do with unconventional actions (e.g., wearing a bathing suit to day care).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast to most of the studies on testimonial information, here we presented a unanimous majority composed by children of the same age as the participants. The few works in this regard show that children are sensitive to consensus information provided by peers, and, in some cases, side with them even when their opinion is in conflict with the children's perceptual experience or the normative judgments about social events (Haun & Tomasello, ; Kim, Chen, Smetana, & Greenberger, ). This tendency to conform to other children's opinions seems to follow a social motivation, the aim of being accepted into the peer group, what is called normative conformity (Claidière & Whiten, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes children defy their peers? Chinese and Spanish preschoolers' decisions to trust (or not) peer consensus

2019

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The more people agree on the same piece of information, the more likely are individuals to endorse the testimonial information. Children are sensitive to consensus but their trust in what a majority says also depends on the decision context, their previous knowledge, and, interestingly, the culture in which they develop. Here we study Chinese (N = 60) and Spanish (N = 48) preschoolers' sensitivity to the opinion of a group of peers in consensus regarding (a) peer interaction events and (b) use of artifacts. For each context, we varied the degree of ambiguity of the situations: unfamiliar, ambiguous, and familiar, where the majority offered a transgressive opinion in conflict with “common sense.” Children were more likely to trust their peers in the unfamiliar and ambiguous situations. In the familiar situations, children showed greater acceptance of transgressive claims regarding artifacts than peer interaction events. The two cultural groups, however, significantly differed in the degree of endorsement. Although Chinese children gave little credibility to their peers even when facing novel information, Spaniards deferred to them, even at the expense of their own criteria. Together with previous findings, these results indicate culture‐specific patterns related to children's attitudes toward peers versus adults as sources of knowledge.

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Does children’s moral compass waver under social pressure? Using the conformity paradigm to test preschoolers’ moral and social-conventional judgments

Cited by 37 publications

References 39 publications

The Influence of Adult and Peer Role Models on Children’ and Adolescents’ Sharing Decisions

The Influence of Adult and Peer Role Models on Children’ and Adolescents’ Sharing Decisions

Ethical perceptions of employees in small retailing firms: A case of indigenous-owned fast-food outlets in Zimbabwe

What makes children defy their peers? Chinese and Spanish preschoolers' decisions to trust (or not) peer consensus

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