Research with adults has demonstrated a "black sheep effect" (BSE) whereby, relative to evaluations of normative group members, ingroup deviants are derogated more than outgroup deviants. The developmental subjective group dynamics (DSGD) model holds that the BSE should develop during middle childhood when children apply wider social…

Ingroup preferences when deciding who to include in 2 distinct intergroup contexts, gender and school affiliation, were investigated. Children and adolescents, in the 4th (9-10 years) and 8th (13-14 years) grades, chose between including someone in their group who shared their group norm (moral or conventional) or who shared their group membership…

Children and adolescents evaluated group inclusion and exclusion in the context of generic and group-specific norms involving morality and social conventions. Participants ("N" = 381), aged 9.5 and 13.5 years, judged an in-group member's decision to deviate from the norms of the group, whom to include, and whether their personal…

To test social and cognitive variables that may affect the development of subjective group dynamics, the authors had 224 children between the ages of 5 and 12 years evaluate an in-group and an out-group and normative and deviant in-group members under conditions of high or low accountability to in-group peers. In-group bias and relative…

Social exclusion is a serious social problem. Not "fitting in" at school may be an experience that can scar children psychologically for life. This is unsurprising since being part of the "in crowd" (i.e. accepted in-group members) is extremely important to children and adolescents. Being rejected by one's peers can cause an increase in antisocial…

Two studies examined whether social norms and children's concern for self-presentation affect their intergroup attitudes. Study 1 examined racial intergroup attitudes and normative beliefs among children aged 6 to 16 years (n=155). Accountability (i.e., public self-focus) was experimentally manipulated, and intergroup attitudes were assessed using…