Group- and Individual-Level Information Affects Children’s Playmate Choice
- Rongzhi Liu, Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
- Gil Diesendruck, Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
- Fei Xu, Psychology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
AbstractSocial relationships such as playmates and friendships are important for children’s development. But relatively little is known about how such relationships are formed. In two studies, 5- to 6-year-old children chose their playmates in a hypothetical scenario that resembled a real-world social situation. The findings suggested that children used both the base-rate information about the social group and the adaptive sampling strategy in playmate choice – they approached or avoided individuals based on the group that the individuals belonged to, as well as their past experiences with the individuals.