title: In-Group Ostracism Increases High-Fidelity Imitation in Early Childhood.
abstract: The Cyberball paradigm was used to examine the hypothesis that children use high-fidelity imitation as a reinclusion behavior in response to being ostracized by in-group members. Children (N = 176; 5- to 6-year-olds) were either included or excluded by in- or out-group members and then shown a video of an in-group or an out-group member enacting a social convention. Participants who were excluded by their in-group engaged in higher-fidelity imitation than those who were included by their in-group. Children who were included by an out-group and those who were excluded by an out-group showed no difference in imitative fidelity. Children ostracized by in-group members also displayed increased anxiety relative to children ostracized by out-group members. The data are consistent with the proposal that high-fidelity imitation functions as reinclusion behavior in the context of in-group ostracism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin watsonjones@austin.utexas.edu.
authors.forename: Rachel E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Watson-Jones
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford.
authors.forename: Harvey
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Whitehouse
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin.
authors.forename: Cristine H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Legare
mesh_terms: D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D063508:Social Discrimination / Q000523:psychology*; D012934:Social Isolation / Q000523:psychology*; D014741:Video Recording
keywords: Cyberball; affiliation; cultural learning; imitation; ostracism; ritual; social convention; social groups