title: Selective imitation of in-group over out-group members in 14-month-old infants.
abstract: Recent research has shown that infants are more likely to engage with in-group over out-group members. However, it is not known whether infants' learning is influenced by a model's group membership. This study investigated whether 14-month-olds (N = 66) selectively imitate and adopt the preferences of in-group versus out-group members. Infants watched an adult tell a story either in their native language (in-group) or a foreign language (out-group). The adult then demonstrated a novel action (imitation task) and chose 1 of 2 objects (preference task). Infants did not show selectivity in the preference task, but they imitated the in-group model more faithfully than the out-group model. This suggests that cultural learning is beginning to be truly cultural by 14 months of age.
authors.affiliation: University of Erfurt, Erfurt,Germany. david.buttelmann@uni-erfurt.de
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Buttelmann
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zmyj
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Daum
authors.forename: Malinda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carpenter
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D007223:Infant; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D012931:Social Environment