Young children are more likely to spontaneously attribute mental states to members of their own group

We investigated whether young children were more likely to spontaneously attribute mental states to members of their own social group than to members of an out-group. We asked 5- and 6-year-old children to describe the actions of interacting geometric shapes and manipulated whether the children believed these shapes represented their own group or another group. Children of both ages spontaneously used mental-state words more often in their description of in-group members compared with out-group members. Furthermore, 6-year-olds produced a greater diversity of mental-state terms when talking about their own social group. These effects held across two different social categories (based on gender and geographic location). This research has important implications for understanding a broad range of social phenomena, including dehumanization, intergroup bias, and theory of mind.<p>Ostracism, or being ignored and excluded by others, is part of our daily lives. It has been documented across historical time and diverse cultural contexts and is reported with striking regularity when people are asked to describe their social relationships. One reason for this is that ostracism plays a key role in maintaining cooperative behaviour within the group: individuals actively avoid interacting with known cheaters. Ostracism is not always so easily justified however; at times, it is used as a way to isolate individuals who are perceived to be different from the majority. The experiments in this grant will investigate the roots of this complex social phenomenon in development. Drawing on previously disparate literatures in social, developmental and evolutionary psychology, the work will examine the situations under which young children (aged 3-8) exclude others from their interactions. The cross cultural component of the project will test which aspects of children’s social decision making may be culturally invariant and which vary depending on the community children grow up in. </p>