Political Ideology in Early Childhood: Making the Case for Studying Young Children in Political Psychology

Abstract

Research in political psychology largely ignores early childhood. This is likely due to the assumption that young children lack the cognitive capacity and social understanding needed for political thought. Challenging this assumption, we argue that research with young children is both possible and important for political psychologists. We focus on the topic of political ideology to demonstrate our argument. We review recent evidence revealing that social cognition in early childhood—and even infancy—is already oriented toward group living in ways that set the foundation of political thought. Young children notice key dimensions of group living (e.g., group boundaries, hierarchies, norms) and use them to guide their reasoning and behavior. Beyond these basic proto‐political sensitivities, young children also display proto‐political attitudes: valenced and/or prescriptive cognitions about dimensions of group living that have political significance (e.g., disliking nonconforming group members, believing that hierarchy between groups is wrong). Even more reminiscent of mainstream political psychology, young children's proto‐political sensitivities and attitudes exhibit systematic individual differences that can roughly be mapped onto three ideological orientations common among adults: authoritarianism, social dominance, and hawkish ideology. We discuss ways in which research with young children is critical for a complete understanding of adult political psychology.

Who, how, and when do children help? A systematic review of children's outgroup prosocial behavior

“…In line with recent research that calls for more inclusion and investigation of childhood in the field of political psychology (e.g., Reifen-Tagar & Cimpian, 2022), we argue that examining the early precursors of intergroup behavior has implications for peace building under two main reasons. First, developmental psychology provides valuable insights into the roots of adults' attitudes and behaviors.…”

“…Connecting to the other theoretical frameworks, research under both the SIDT and SRD has found that children's understanding of these larger societal forces only begin to mature in older childhood (e.g., structural inequality and group norms; Monteiro et al, 2009) and likely continues to develop into adulthood. However, even young children are aware of the certain key dimensions on how groups are structured and influenced (e.g., group boundaries, hierarchies, norms; for a review, see Reifen-Tagar & Cimpian, 2022). Thus, a fruitful avenue for future research could be to examine children's preliminary understanding of these macrosystem-level factors.…”

“…For example, in settings of intergroup conflict and division, children are politically socialized from a young age by their family, peers, school, and environment (Bar‐Tal et al., 2017; Nasie & Bar‐Tal, 2020). This politicization during childhood can be associated with enduring prejudice toward the outgroup (Reidy et al., 2015). Understanding the factors that predict prosocial behavior toward socially relevant outgroups during childhood offers a pathway to more harmonious intergroup relations and may even serve as an antecedent to peace building (Taylor, 2020).…”

Inconsistent and Very Weak Evidence for a Direct Association Between Childhood Personality and Adult Ideology

“…Because personality traits tend to form early in childhood and remain stable across one's life, a person's childhood temperament could offer a window into the political opinions they adopt as an adult (Landau-Wells & Saxe, 2020;Reifen-Tagar & Cimpian, 2022). For instance, a child who becomes anxious when exposed to new experiences and maintains this trait throughout childhood, adolescence, and into adulthood may choose to avoid novel situations as well as find comfort in familiar traditional social arrangements.…”

“…The vast majority of the evidence supporting this claim, however, comes from cross-sectional research with adult subjects in which self-reported personality traits are correlated with self-reported ideology (Federico & Malka, 2018). Because cross-sectional correlations do not provide sufficient support for causal relationships, scholars look to panel studies that follow individuals from childhood to adulthood as offering a stronger basis for the relationship between personality traits on political attitudes (Hibbing et al, 2014;Jost et al, 2009;Reifen-Tagar & Cimpian, 2022). These researchers reason that because personality traits emerge early in childhood, if adults' political attitudes correlate with their personality traits as children, it would constitute evidence that psychological predispositions play an important role in shaping political attitudes (e.g., Hibbing et al, 2014;Jost et al, 2009).…”