What type of research design was used? o Who were the participants in the study?

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What type of research design was used? o Who were the participants in the study? o How were the data collected?
Check for updates dps Rnearcb Report Young Children Are More Likely to Spontaneously Attribute Mental States to Members of Their Own Group Roprins and pemsnion SAGE Niamh McLoughlin and Harriet Over Depanment of Paychology Univernity of York We investigated whether young children were more likely to spontaneously attribute mental states to members of their own social group than to members of an out-group. We asked 5- and 6-year-old children to describe the actions of interacting gcometric shapes and manipulated whether the children believed these shapes represented their own group or another group. Children of both ages spontaneously used mental-state words more often in their description of in-group members compared with out-group members, Purthermore, 6-year-olds produced a greater diversity of mental-state terms when talking about their own social group. These effects held across two different social categories Cbased on gender and geographic location). This research has important implications for understanding a broad range of social phenomena, including dehumanization, intergroup bias, and theory of mind Keywords social cognition, childhood development, theory of mind, prejudice, open data Received 6/Revision accepsed V2/17 The ability to understand others' minds is vital to human young children were more likely to spontaneously con- social interaction (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985; sider the mental states of in-group members than those Gray, Gray, & Wegner, 2007). From a young age, chil of out-group members. To do so, we adapted a para- dren are able to reason about the intentions (Carpenter, digm created by Abell, Happé, and Frith (2000) in Akhtar, & Tomasello, 1998), desires (Repacholi & which participants were asked to describe the behav- Gopnik, 1997), and perhaps even the beliefs (Onishi& ior of interacting geometric shapes. The actions of Baillargeon, 2005) of other people. these shapes have been shown to elicit mental-state However, social psychological research has demon terms in typically developing children and adults strated that adults do not always take the mental life of (Abell et al., 2000). We manipulated whether the chil- others into account (Harris & Fiske, 2006). They some- dren believed these shapes represented members of times dehumanize members of social out-groups or their own social group or a different social group. We deny their mental capacities, such as intelligence, predicted that they would use mental-state terms more agency, and emotional depth (Haslam, 2006, Leyens often, and with greater variety, when describing in- et al., 2000). Out-group dehumanization has been an group interactions. integral part of prejudice and discrimination throughoutWe tested these hypotheses with two different types history and remains an important political issue today of social group, one relating to gender and the other (Haslam, 2006). Although the tendency to dehumanize relating to geographic location. We chose to manipulate others is not limited to any one political group, rising support for far-right parties throughout the West makes the significance of this topic all too clear (Roth, 2017) gender because previous research has shown that this In the present study, we combined developmental work on theory of mind with social psychological Hesington. Yok Yo10 SDD, Corresponding Author Niamh Mcloughlin, Department of Psychology, University ofl York, Englaod on dehumanization by investigating whether E-mal: ncm5130york.ac.auk

Explanation / Answer

1. The research used a 2x2x2 mixed factorial design.

2. The participants of the study were 64 five year old children and 64 six year old children.

3. The data was collected using a structured interview approach.

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