Effects of Responsiveness and Sex of Children on Adults' Behavior

To assess whether children could control adults' social behavior, the children's responsiveness to their adult women partners was varied. In the responsive condition, the child confederates initiated conversation, asked for evaluations of their performance on art tasks, and smiled when pra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Child development 1977-03, Vol.48 (1), p.232-238
Main Authors: Cantor, Nancy L., Gelfand, Donna M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Analysis of variance
Child neglect
Children
Observational research
Older adults
Personality psychology
Social behavior
Social interaction
Verbalization
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Summary:To assess whether children could control adults' social behavior, the children's responsiveness to their adult women partners was varied. In the responsive condition, the child confederates initiated conversation, asked for evaluations of their performance on art tasks, and smiled when praised. In the unresponsive condition, the same children avoided looking at or interacting with the adult. Adult women attended more to responsive children and gave more help to responsive than to unresponsive girls. The adults also rated children as more attractive, likable, and competent when the children behaved responsively than when they were unresponsive. The results suggest that influence is bidirectional in adult-child interactions and that socially awkward children could be trained to elicit positive reactions from adults.
ISSN:0009-3920
1467-8624
DOI:10.2307/1128903