The relative effects of 3 different kinds of social reinforcement on children's susceptibility to E influence on a preference task were explored in a beforeafter experimental design. 72 Ist-grade children, representing the sexes and 2 socioeconomic levels (middle and working classes) in equal numbers, comprised the sample. Each of 2 female adults served with a random i of the Ss under each of the experimental conditions. Susceptibility to E influence was indexed by the number of times S shifted an initial preference to agree with E's stated preferences. The results confirmed the hypothesized effectiveness of nurturance and withdrawal of nurturance over unresponsive attention, but they failed to bear out the expectation that withdrawal of nurturance leads to greater susceptibility than consistent nurturance. Working-class boys were significantly less susceptible to E influence, irrespective of treatment, than working-class girls and middle-class boys and girls.
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