Shared cultural knowledge: Effects of music on young children's social preferences

Cognition
Gaye Soley, Elizabeth S Spelke

Abstract

Adults use cultural markers to discern the structure of the social landscape. Such markers may also influence the social preferences of young children, who tend to conform to their own group and prefer others who do so. However, the forces that propel these preferences are unknown. Here, we use social preferences based on music to investigate these forces in four- and five-year-old children. First, we establish that children prefer other children whose favorite songs are familiar to them. Then we show that this effect depends on shared knowledge: children both prefer others who know songs they themselves know, and avoid others who know songs they do not know, irrespective of the target children's liking of the songs. These results suggest that young children have a remarkably selective sensitivity to shared cultural knowledge. Shared knowledge may be a powerful determinant of children's social preferences, both because it underpins effective communication and because it is conveyed by others through social interactions and therefore can serve as a marker of social group identity.

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Citations

Mar 8, 2018·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Laura K CirelliLaurel J Trainor
Mar 21, 2019·Scientific Reports·A Wuttke-LinnemannB Ditzen
Jun 22, 2021·Cognition·Gaye Soley, Begüm Köseler
Jul 10, 2021·Developmental Science·Haley E KragnessLaura K Cirelli
Aug 21, 2020·The Behavioral and Brain Sciences·Patrick E SavageW Tecumseh Fitch

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