When It Comes To Decision-Making, Toddlers Follow The Crowd

When faced with a decision, preschoolers prefer to go by majority opinion, says a new study.

Psychologists Kathleen H. Corriveau, Maria Fusaro, and Paul L. Harris of Harvard University have shown when it comes to taking decision preschoolers prefer to follow the crowd.

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During the study, three- and four-year-old children watched as a small group of people (either three or four members) named a novel object.

The majority of group members would use the same name for the object, while the lone dissenter would pick a different name.

The children were then asked what they thought the object was called. The researchers found that majority influenced preschoolers' the opinion.

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They would consistently select the name that was used by the majority of the group members.

Moreover, in a follow-up experiment in which only two members (someone from the majority group and the dissenter) remained in the room and named a different object, the children would still go with name that was provided by the majority group member.

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The authors said the "findings provide initial evidence that young children navigate that social variation with the help of a simple but powerful strategy."

The results indicate that children as young as age three and four are able to recognize and trust a consensus.

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In addition, young children are good at remembering who was and was not a part of the majority group.

Source-ANI
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