{"title":"Children’s perceptions of intergroup similarity and dissimilarity and their association with attitudes towards a conflict out-group","authors":"Meytal Nasie , Shiri Stanescu","doi":"10.1016/j.cogdev.2024.101499","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Children’s perceptions of similarity and dissimilarity between in- and out-groups and their associations with intergroup attitudes were examined. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, 5- and 8-year-old Jewish-Israeli children (<em>N</em> = 100, 48 % girls) were investigated. They were asked about Arabs (which are considered a conflict out-group). Specifically, they were asked whether a Jewish girl/boy and an Arab girl/boy are similar or dissimilar and in what way. They were also asked about their attitudes towards Arabs. In general, children reported more intergroup dissimilarities than similarities between Jews and Arabs. Children’s perceptions revealed that they considered three types of properties as fundamental for intergroup (dis)similarity: appearance, psychological characteristics, and social identity. The results indicate that children form intergroup dissimilarity perceptions at an early age, but only at about 8 years of age do these perceptions become associated with negative attitudes towards the out-group. These findings highlight the importance of promoting early awareness of similarities between groups to mitigate the development of negative attitudes as children grow older.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51422,"journal":{"name":"Cognitive Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Cognitive Development","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885201424000844","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Children’s perceptions of similarity and dissimilarity between in- and out-groups and their associations with intergroup attitudes were examined. Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, 5- and 8-year-old Jewish-Israeli children (N = 100, 48 % girls) were investigated. They were asked about Arabs (which are considered a conflict out-group). Specifically, they were asked whether a Jewish girl/boy and an Arab girl/boy are similar or dissimilar and in what way. They were also asked about their attitudes towards Arabs. In general, children reported more intergroup dissimilarities than similarities between Jews and Arabs. Children’s perceptions revealed that they considered three types of properties as fundamental for intergroup (dis)similarity: appearance, psychological characteristics, and social identity. The results indicate that children form intergroup dissimilarity perceptions at an early age, but only at about 8 years of age do these perceptions become associated with negative attitudes towards the out-group. These findings highlight the importance of promoting early awareness of similarities between groups to mitigate the development of negative attitudes as children grow older.
期刊介绍:
Cognitive Development contains the very best empirical and theoretical work on the development of perception, memory, language, concepts, thinking, problem solving, metacognition, and social cognition. Criteria for acceptance of articles will be: significance of the work to issues of current interest, substance of the argument, and clarity of expression. For purposes of publication in Cognitive Development, moral and social development will be considered part of cognitive development when they are related to the development of knowledge or thought processes.