Infants' biased individuation of in-group members

Adi Zehavi Fogiel; Jonas Hermes; Hannes Rakoczy; Gil Diesendruck

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105561

Infants' biased individuation of in-group members

Cognition. 2023 Oct:239:105561. doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105561. Epub 2023 Jul 14.

Authors

Adi Zehavi Fogiel¹, Jonas Hermes², Hannes Rakoczy², Gil Diesendruck³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel.
² Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Goettingen, 37073 Goettingen, Germany.
³ Department of Psychology, Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan 5290002, Israel. Electronic address: gil.diesendruck@biu.ac.il.

PMID: 37454528
DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105561

Abstract

Adults tend to construe members of their group as "unique individuals" more than members of other groups. This study investigated whether infants exhibit this tendency, even in regard to unfamiliar arbitrary groups. Ninety-six White 1-year-olds were assigned to an Ingroup, Outgroup, or No-Group condition, based on whether or not they shared two preferences (food and shirt color) with women appearing on video sequences. In the critical trial, infants saw two women (Ingroup, Outgroup, or No-Group) - one at a time - appearing from behind a curtain. The curtain opened to reveal only one woman. Infants in the Ingroup condition looked longer at this display than infants in the other two conditions. This suggests that infants in the Ingroup condition had a stronger expectation than those in the other two conditions that there would be two women behind the curtain. In other words, infants individuated in-group members more than out-group members.

Keywords: Group membership; Individuation; Infants; Intergroup bias.

MeSH terms

Adult
Female
Humans
Individuation*
Infant