Priming third-party social exclusion does not elicit children's inclusion of out-group members

Abstract

This study investigates how culture and priming 3- to 7-year-old children ( N = 186) with third-party social exclusion affects their subsequent inclusion of out-group members. Children in societies that tend to value social independence (Germany, New Zealand) and interdependence (Northern Cyprus) were randomly assigned to minimal groups. Next, they watched video stimuli depicting third-party social exclusion (exclusion condition) or neutral content (control condition). We assessed children's recognition of the social exclusion expressed in the priming videos and their understanding of the emotional consequences thereof. We furthermore assessed children's inclusion behaviour in a ball-tossing game in which participants could include an out-group agent into an in-group interplay. Children across societies detected third-party social exclusion and ascribed lower mood to excluded than non-excluded protagonists. Children from Germany and New Zealand were more likely to include the out-group agent into the in-group interaction than children from Northern Cyprus. Children's social inclusion remained unaffected by their exposure to third-party social exclusion primes. These results suggest that children from diverse societies recognize social exclusion and correctly forecast its negative emotional consequences, but raise doubt on the notion that social exclusion exposure affects subsequent social inclusion.

The “scars” left on children by Exclusion, but Re-inclusion may “heal up”

“…As school-aged children transition into adolescence, peer relationships become more significant, and social exclusion can elicit stronger negative emotions and a heightened neural response in older children (Tang et al, 2019). Although there is no direct evidence in the literature regarding the effect of social exclusion on the moods of children aged 6-8 years, research suggests that children aged 3-7 years can recognize social exclusion and accurately predict the negative emotions experienced by excluded individuals in videos (Stengelin et al, 2022). Therefore, younger children may already feel primarily negative emotions after being ostracized, while older children experience more complex and intense negative emotions.…”

You can't play with us: First‐person ostracism affects infants' behavioral reactivity

“…In addition, comparably to adults, school‐aged ostracized children exhibited improvements in recognition of emotional facial expressions (Mermier et al, 2023), and engaged in more prosocial behaviors, such as action (Hopkins & Branigan, 2020) or language (Watson‐Jones et al, 2016) imitation. Furthermore, preschool‐aged children not only recognized ostracism (Hwang & Markson, 2020) and assigned a lower emotional state to individuals experiencing exclusion (Hwang et al, 2017; Stengelin et al, 2022), but also showed more affiliative imitation and facial mimicry when ostracized (de Klerk et al, 2020; Over & Carpenter, 2009; Vacaru et al, 2020; Watson‐Jones et al, 2016) compared to included children. Importantly, although frustrated verbal and non‐verbal behaviors did not appear to be influenced by the ostracism condition, more verbal and non‐verbal expressions of anxiety were highlighted in those children ostracized by an in‐group compared to an out‐group member (Watson‐Jones et al, 2016).…”