The Early Ontogeny of Social Norms

Abstract

Recent research has produced new insights into the early development of social cognition and social learning. Even very young children learn and understand social activities as governed by conventional norms that (a) are arbitrary and shared by the community, (b) have normative force and apply to all participants, and (c) are valid in context‐relative ways. Importantly, such understanding is revealed both in the fact that children themselves follow the norms, and in the fact that they actively enforce them toward third parties. Human social cognition thus has a fundamental normative dimension that begins early. This norm psychology plausibly evolved due to its role in stabilizing group coordination and cooperation, and is one of the foundations of what is uniquely human social learning and culture.

Children's developing understanding of legitimate reasons for allocating resources unequally

“…Another point which might be relevant here is that in children's social world, distributive justice norms that go beyond equality (e.g., "You should share equally!") might be less prominent, less explicit, and more intricate (e.g., "Those who work more should get more"), so that young children have a harder time learning them than, for instance, simple game rules or behavioral rules that are explicitly introduced by adults or well-known moral norms against harming others (Killen & Smetana, 2006;Rakoczy & Schmidt, 2013;Turiel, 1998).…”

Young children mostly keep, and expect others to keep, their promises

“…The later behavior is one indication that children understand that norms apply not only to themselves but also to other members of their group. There is a growing body of developmental work showing that from 3 years of age Western children actively enforce social and moral norms toward third parties in a variety of contexts such as game rules and ownership norms (Rakoczy & Schmidt, 2013;Rakoczy et al, 2008;Rossano et al, 2011;Tomasello & Vaish, 2013). This suggests that preschoolers understand in principle that norms apply to all individuals within similar contexts.…”

Social play as joint action: A framework to study the evolution of shared intentionality as an interactional achievement

“…Between 24 and 30 months of age, children reliably cooperate with each other in problem-solving tasks, but younger children do not (Brownell & Carriger, 1990). It is only during the third year of life, as the child's social understanding and language about self and other develops and they begin to care about social norms and rules of games (Rakoczy & Schmidt, 2013;Rakoczy, Warneken, & Tomasello, 2008), that social games become more coordinated and cooperative (Brownell, Ramani, & Zerwas, 2006;Eckerman & Didow, 1996;Verba, 1994). Indeed, by taking into account their partners' intentions and by monitoring, timing and sequencing their own and their partner's actions, children can adjust their behavior appropriately to attain a shared goal (Barresi & Moore, 1996;Brownell et al, 2006;Smiley, 2001).…”