Heralding the Authoritarian? Orientation Toward Authority in Early Childhood

In the research reported here, we examined whether individual differences in authoritarianism have expressions in early childhood. We expected that young children would be more responsive to cues of deviance and status to the extent that their parents endorsed authoritarian values. Using a sample of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2014-04, Vol.25 (4), p.883-892
Main Authors: Tagar, Michal Reifen, Federico, Christopher M., Lyons, Kristen E., Ludeke, Steven, Koenig, Melissa A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adults
Authoritarianism
Binomials
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child Development
Child, Preschool
Childhood
Children & youth
Conformity
Conservatism
Conventionality
Developmental psychology
Early childhood
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Grammatical gender
Heuristics
Humans
Individuality
Learning
Male
Parent-Child Relations
Parents
Parents & parenting
Preschool children
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social Values
Trust
Values
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Summary:In the research reported here, we examined whether individual differences in authoritarianism have expressions in early childhood. We expected that young children would be more responsive to cues of deviance and status to the extent that their parents endorsed authoritarian values. Using a sample of 43 preschoolers and their parents, we found support for both expectations. Children of parents high in authoritarianism trusted adults who adhered to convention (vs. adults who did not) more than did children of parents low in authoritarianism. Furthermore, compared with children of parents low in authoritarianism, children of parents high in authoritarianism gave greater weight to a status-based "adult = reliable" heuristic in trusting an ambiguously conventional adult. Findings were consistent using two different measures of parents' authoritarian values. These findings demonstrate that children's trust-related behaviors vary reliably with their parents' orientations toward authority and convention, and suggest that individual differences in authoritarianism express themselves well before early adulthood.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797613516470