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Jordan AE, Wynn K. Adults' pedagogical messages engender children's preference for self-resembling others. Dev Sci. 2021;e13206doi: 10.1111/desc.13206.
Jordan, A. E., & Wynn, K. (2021). Adults' pedagogical messages engender children's preference for self-resembling others. Developmental science, e13206. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13206
Jordan, Ashley E, and Wynn, Karen. "Adults' pedagogical messages engender children's preference for self-resembling others." Developmental science vol. (2021): e13206. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13206
Jordan AE, Wynn K. Adults' pedagogical messages engender children's preference for self-resembling others. Dev Sci. 2021 Dec 03;e13206. doi: 10.1111/desc.13206. Epub 2021 Dec 03. PMID: 34859935.
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Dev Sci. 2021 Dec 03;e13206. doi: 10.1111/desc.13206. Epub 2021 Dec 03.

Adults' pedagogical messages engender children's preference for self-resembling others.

Developmental science

Ashley E Jordan, Karen Wynn

Affiliations

  1. Yale University, New Haven, USA.

PMID: 34859935 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13206

Abstract

These studies investigate the influence of adults' explicit attention to commonalities of appearance on children's preference for individuals resembling themselves. Three findings emerged: (1) An adult's identification of two dolls' respective similarity to and difference from the child led 3-year-olds to prefer the similar doll (study 1, n = 32). (2) When the adult did not comment on similarity, children age 6 years but not younger preferred physically similar individuals (study 2, n = 68), suggesting that a spontaneous preference for physically similar others does not emerge before school age. (3) Four- but not 3-year-olds generalized an adult's pedagogical cues about similarity, leading them to prefer a self-resembling doll in a new context (study 3, n = 80). These findings collectively suggest that the preference for individuals resembling ourselves develops through a process of internalizing adults' attention to, and messages about, similarities of appearance.

© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Keywords: cognitive development; preferences; similarity; social cognition; social development

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