Children's Understanding of Biased Social Cognition

• Published in: Developmental psychology 1991-07, Vol.27 (4), p.539-551
• Main Author: Pillow, Bradford H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Differences; Attribution; Behavior; Beliefs; Bias; Biological and medical sciences; Child development; Children & youth; Cognition & reasoning; Developmental psychology; Early Childhood Education; Expectation; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Grade 2; Human; Inferences; Interpretive Skills; Justification (Psychology); Kindergarten Children; Perceptual Development; Preschool Children; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Role Taking; Social Cognition; Social research; Stimulus Ambiguity
• ISSN: 0012-1649; 1939-0599
• DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.27.4.539

Two studies investigated children's understanding that preexisting biases may influence the interpretation of behavior. Children heard stories and were asked to take the perspective of an observer who (a) either liked or disliked an actor and (b) either knew or did not know the reason for the actor's ambiguous action. In Experiment 1, kindergarteners and 2nd graders were asked whether the observer regarded the action as accidental or intentional. Most 2nd graders inferred that a negatively biased, uninformed observer would construe the act as intentional. In Experiment 2, preschool, kindergarten, and 2nd grade children were asked what action an observer believed an actor was performing. Kindergartners and 2nd graders appropriately used bias and knowledge information to predict the observer's perspective.