How preschoolers react to norm violations is associated with culture

Abstract

Children from the age of three understand social norms as such, and enforce these norms in interactions with others. Differences in parental and institutional education across cultures make it likely that children receive divergent information about how to act in cases of norm violations. In the present study, we investigated whether cultural values are associated with the ways in which children react to norm violations. We tested 80 bicultural 3-year-old children with a norm enforcement paradigm and analyzed their reactions to norm violations. The reactions were correlated to the children’s parental cultural values using the GLOBE scales and these results show that parental culture was associated with children’s reactions to norm violations. The three strongest correlations were found for institutional collectivism, performance orientation and assertiveness.

Emotions experienced during the shedding of the first primary tooth

“…Apart from the Tooth Fairy, which is of recent vintage, ancient folk customs and practices feature throwing the lost tooth to a mouse, to the sun, or into a fire . Based on the fact that diverse cultural parental norms evoke different responses in children, it is fair to expect variations in children's emotions depending on the significance the tooth shedding is granted by parental culture. Moreover, cultural differences in parent‐child interaction and parenting style exist, which, unrelated to specific cults and customs, may account for dissimilar responses.…”