Preschoolers’ Judgment of Cultural Norm Breakers

How does a violation of cultural customs, whether by a native or a foreigner, affect preschoolers’ subsequent trust in that individual as a source of cultural information?

Summary: Preschoolers seem to fail to excuse others for norm-breaking, even when acceptable reasons exist, until they develop reflective capacity. This phenomenon is expected to generalize to scenarios where children have the opportunity to learn about their own or a foreign culture from native and foreign individuals whom they observe breaking cultural norms for different reasons. Specifically, a native person breaks the norm as a personal preference (an unacceptable reason), while a foreign person does so as a consequence of their foreign culture (an acceptable reason).

Lead Researcher: Ezgi Özgan

Research Assistants: Aybike Orozobayev, Cennet Yaren Kılıçarslan, Defne Atak, Elif Sena Güler, Uraz Portakal, Aslıhan Yavuz, Burcu Okyay

Who to Copy: A Teammate or an Expert?

When learning a new skill, do children prefer to copy a teammate (even if they are not knowledgeable) or someone knowledgeable (even if they are not a teammate)?

Summary: Children often copy everything an adult does, even the extra steps that are not needed to finish a task. The social nature of this behavior highlights a primacy tension between its different functions, imitation to learn the right way to act or to belong to a specific group. This study investigates the primacy by introducing two distinct adults: a less competent individual who shares the child’s social group and a skilled expert from an outside group.

Lead Researcher: Yağmur Esendemir

Research Assistants: Aslıhan Yavuz, Burcu Okyay, Ariana Baigi Ghavam, İpar Kızartıcı, Ümit Can Erbudak, Vildan Kahveci, Yunus Arda Garip, İkra Aybüke Ertekin, Eylül Ağaçkıran

Influence of Parenting on Social Learning Strategies

How do parents’ supportive guidance and use of white lies influence their children’s tendency to copy actions and select who to trust for new information?

Summary: Children are social learners. Specific parenting behaviors influence who children trust to learn from and how much they learn from them. This study focuses on two common parenting techniques, supportive guidance and instrumental lie-telling, to examine how these practices relate to children’s social learning strategies.

Lead Researcher: Hasan Deniz Baran

Research Assistants: Abeer Syed, Hawa Malik, Selen Solmaz, Melis Menkü, Asya Saygılı

To participate in this study, you must participate in either one of the “Preschoolers’ Judgment of Cultural Norm Breakers” or “Who to Copy: A Teammate or an Expert?” studies.

Avoiding the Bad vs. Preferring the Good

When children choose a reliable person over an unreliable one, do they truly understand the concept of trust, or are they just avoiding the person who was wrong?

Summary: Preschoolers quickly learn to prefer getting answers from someone who has been right in the past. But this preference might not mean they fully understand trustworthiness of people. This study investigates a subtle developmental shift in how children make this choice by exploring whether younger children are simply avoiding the person they know is inaccurate, picking anyone else as an alternative.

Lead Researcher: Ezgi Özgan and Yağmur Esendemir

To participate in this study, you must participate in either one of the “Preschoolers’ Judgment of Cultural Norm Breakers” or “Who to Copy: A Teammate or an Expert?” studies.