Early exposure to various social settings, such as that received at daycare, affects communication style in later life. The study was published in NPJ Science of Learning (1✔ ✔Trusted Source
Integrating stereotypes and factual evidence in interpersonal communication
).
These early social experiences can also help to curb later inclinations toward stereotyping.
The longer a person attended daycare as a child, the more probable it is that they will eventually surpass their stereotypes while interacting with others. As a result, they become more perceptive of the characteristics of the people they interact with.
Behavioral Shaping Through Social Interaction
The goal of the study was to determine whether people would change how they behaved in response to their perceptions about the people they were dealing with.
A nonverbal digital board game was used by researchers with about 100 participants from a larger longitudinal study conducted in the Netherlands. Players in the game had to assist their partner in finding hidden hints on the board.
At each transition, participants were shown images and informed that their partner, who was playing from another room, would alternate between an adult and a child. Most thought they were playing the game with either a five-year-old child or a twenty-five-year-old adult, but all along they were playing with an adult.
Participants spent slightly longer on target locations when they believed they were interacting with a child, drawing on a simple stereotype that children are less capable than adults. Notably, there were no differences in the partner’s behavior whether they were perceived as the child or the adult.
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Stereotypes and Social Flexibility: Effect of Early Day Care
In analyzing the demographics of the participants, the team found that those who attended daycare more frequently before the age of three were quicker to overcome their stereotypes at age 17, adjusting their behavior to treat both child and adult partners equally.
Conversely, participants who lacked this early social exposure were more likely to hold onto their stereotypical views for longer. This trend held regardless of the participants’ socioeconomic background or whether they had siblings.
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“Participants who went to daycare were more socially flexible in their interactions with others,” says lead author Saskia Koch, a postdoctoral researcher at the Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
The authors conclude that the capacity for flexible adjustment in social interactions can be predicted by the enriching environment provided by daycare.
Reference:
- Integrating stereotypes and factual evidence in interpersonal communication – (https:www.nature.com/articles/s41539-024-00262-6)
Source-Eurekalert