Nonverbal displays of dominance and prestige: Evidence for cross-cultural and early-emerging recognition.

Two universal strategies for attaining influence-dominance, or the use of intimidation and force to obtain power, and prestige, or garnering respect by demonstrating knowledge and expertise-are communicated through distinct nonverbal displays in North America. Given evidence for the emergence and effectiveness of these strategies across cultures, including non-Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic small-scale, traditional societies in Africa, Asia, and South America, the nonverbal displays that are used to reliably communicate these strategies also might be universal. Here, we demonstrate that the dominance display is recognized by the Mayangna, a small-scale society in rural Nicaragua, and by Canadian children as young as 2 and 3 years old. We also find that the prestige display is reliably differentiated from dominance by both groups, and judged as a high-rank signal by the Mayangna. However, members of the Mayangna confused the prestige display with happiness, and children confused the prestige display with a neutral expression. Overall, findings are consistent with a ubiquitous and early-emerging ability to recognize dominance, and with the suggestion that the prestige display is more culturally variable and ontogenetically slower to emerge. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Infants infer third-party social dominance relationships based on visual access to intergroup conflict.

During a conflict, having a greater number of allies than the opposition can improve one's success in a conflict. However, allies must be aware that has a conflict has occurred, and this is often influenced by what they are able to see. Here, we explored whether infants' assessment of social dominance is influenced by whether or not social allies have visual access to an episode of intergroup conflict. In Experiment 1, 9-12-month-olds only expected an agent to be socially dominant if their allies were able to witness the conflict. Experiment 2 provided further support for this finding, as infants did not expect an agent from a numerically larger group to be socially dominant when allies were unable to witness the conflict. Together, these results suggest that infants do not simply use a heuristic in which "numerically larger groups are always more dominant". Importantly, infants are able to incorporate social allies' ability to witness a conflict when predicting social dominance between groups.

Exposure to stereotype-relevant stories shapes children's implicit gender stereotypes.

Implicit math = male stereotypes have been found in early childhood and are linked to girls' disproportionate disengagement from math-related activities and later careers. Yet, little is known about how malleable children's automatic stereotypes are, especially in response to brief interventions. In a sample of 336 six- to eleven-year-olds, we experimentally tested whether exposure to a brief story vignette intervention with either stereotypical, neutral, or counter-stereotypical content (three conditions: math = boy vs. neutral vs. math = girl) could change implicit math-gender stereotypes. Results suggested that children's implicit math = male stereotypes were indeed responsive to brief stories that either reinforced or countered the widespread math = male stereotype. Children exposed to the counter-stereotypical stories showed significantly lower (and non-significant) stereotypes compared to children exposed to the stereotypical stories. Critically, exposure to stories that perpetuated math = male stereotypes significantly increased math-gender stereotypes over and above baseline, underscoring that implicit gender biases that are readily formed during this period in childhood and even brief exposure to stereotypical content can strengthen them. As a secondary question, we also examined whether changes in stereotypes might also lead to changes in implicit math self-concept. Evidence for effects on implicit self-concept were not statistically significant.

Developmental antecedents of representing "group" behavior: A commentary on Pietraszewski's theory of groups.

Central to Pietraszewski's theory is a set of group-constitutive roles within four triadic primitives. Although some data from the developmental and biological sciences support Pietraszewski's theory, other data raise questions about whether similar behavioral expectations hold across various ecological conditions and interactions. We discuss the potential for a broader set of conceptual primitives that support reasoning about groups.

Why Antibias Interventions (Need Not) Fail.

There is a critical disconnect between scientific knowledge about the nature of bias and how this knowledge gets translated into organizational debiasing efforts. Conceptual confusion around what implicit bias is contributes to misunderstanding. Bridging these gaps is the key to understanding when and why antibias interventions will succeed or fail. Notably, there are multiple distinct pathways to biased behavior, each of which requires different types of interventions. To bridge the gap between public understanding and psychological research, we introduce a visual typology of bias that summarizes the process by which group-relevant cognitions are expressed as biased behavior. Our typology spotlights cognitive, motivational, and situational variables that affect the expression and inhibition of biases while aiming to reduce the ambiguity of what constitutes implicit bias. We also address how norms modulate how biases unfold and are perceived by targets. Using this typology as a framework, we identify theoretically distinct entry points for antibias interventions. A key insight is that changing associations, increasing motivation, raising awareness, and changing norms are distinct goals that require different types of interventions targeting individual, interpersonal, and institutional structures. We close with recommendations for antibias training grounded in the science of prejudice and stereotyping.

The effect of gender stereotypes on young girls' intuitive number sense.

Despite the global importance of science, engineering, and math-related fields, women are consistently underrepresented in these areas. One source of this disparity is likely the prevalence of gender stereotypes that constrain girls' and women's math performance and interest. The current research explores the developmental roots of these effects by examining the impact of stereotypes on young girls' intuitive number sense, a universal skill that predicts later math ability. Across four studies, 762 children ages 3-6 were presented with a task measuring their Approximate Number System accuracy. Instructions given before the task varied by condition. In the two control conditions, the task was described to children either as a game or a test of eyesight ability. In the experimental condition, the task was described as a test of math ability and that researchers were interested in whether boys or girls were better at math and counting. Separately, we measured children's explicit beliefs about math and gender. Results conducted on the combined dataset indicated that while only a small number of girls in the sample had stereotypes associating math with boys, these girls performed significantly worse on a test of Approximate Number System accuracy when it was framed as a math test rather than a game or an eyesight test. These results provide novel evidence that for young girls who do endorse stereotypes about math and gender, contextual activation of these stereotypes may impair their intuitive number sense, potentially affecting their acquisition of formal mathematics concepts and developing interest in math-related fields.

The effect of familiarity on infants' social categorization capacity.

Recent studies indicate that a preference for people from one's own race emerges early in development. Arguably, one potential process contributing to such a bias has to do with the increased discriminability of own- vs. other-race faces-a process commonly attributed to perceptual narrowing of unfamiliar groups' faces, and analogous to the conceptual homogenization of out-groups. The present studies addressed two implications of perceptual narrowing of other-race faces for infants' social categorization capacity. In Experiment 1, White 11-month-olds' (N = 81) looking time at a Black vs. White face was measured under three between-subjects conditions: a baseline "preference" (i.e., without familiarization), after familiarization to Black faces, or after familiarization to White faces. Compared to infants' a priori looking preferences as revealed in the baseline condition, only when familiarized to Black faces did infants look longer at the "not-familiarized-category" face at test. According to the standard categorization paradigm used, such longer looking time at the novel (i.e., "not-familiarized-category") exemplar at test, indicated that categorization of the familiarized faces had ensued. This is consistent with the idea that prior to their first birthday, infants already tend to represent own-race faces as individuals and other-race faces as a category. If this is the case, then infants might also be less likely to form subordinate categories within other-race than own-race categories. In Experiment 2, infants (N = 34) distinguished between an arbitrary (shirt-color) based sub-categories only when shirt-wearers were White, but not when they were Black. These findings confirm that perceptual narrowing of other-race faces blurs distinctions among members of unfamiliar categories. Consequently, infants: a) readily categorize other-race faces as being of the same kind, and b) find it hard to distinguish between their sub-categories.

The power of allies: Infants' expectations of social obligations during intergroup conflict.

Many species of animals form social allegiances to enhance survival. Across disciplines, researchers have suggested that allegiances form to facilitate within group cooperation and defend each other against rival groups. Here, we explore humans' reasoning about social allegiances and obligations beginning in infancy, long before they have experience with intergroup conflict. In Experiments 1 and 2, we demonstrate that infants (17-19 months, and 9-13 months, respectively) expect a social ally to intervene and provide aid during an episode of intergroup conflict. Experiment 3 conceptually replicated the results of Experiments 1 and 2. Together, this set of experiments reveals that humans' understanding of social obligation and loyalty may be innate, and supported by infants' naïve sociology.

Meta-Analytic Use of Balanced Identity Theory to Validate the Implicit Association Test.

This meta-analysis evaluated theoretical predictions from balanced identity theory (BIT) and evaluated the validity of zero points of Implicit Association Test (IAT) and self-report measures used to test these predictions. Twenty-one researchers contributed individual subject data from 36 experiments (total N = 12,773) that used both explicit and implicit measures of the social-cognitive constructs. The meta-analysis confirmed predictions of BIT's balance-congruity principle and simultaneously validated interpretation of the IAT's zero point as indicating absence of preference between two attitude objects. Statistical power afforded by the sample size enabled the first confirmations of balance-congruity predictions with self-report measures. Beyond these empirical results, the meta-analysis introduced a within-study statistical test of the balance-congruity principle, finding that it had greater efficiency than the previous best method. The meta-analysis's full data set has been publicly archived to enable further studies of interrelations among attitudes, stereotypes, and identities.

Developmental differences in the malleability of implicit racial bias following exposure to counterstereotypical exemplars.

Research suggests that exposure to stories about Black adults who are contributing positively to their community can reduce implicit pro-White/anti-Black racial bias in older children (ages 9-12). The aim of the current research was to replicate and extend this finding by investigating whether a different child-friendly manipulation exposing children to positive Black exemplars and negative White exemplars could decrease implicit pro-White/anti-Black racial bias in children aged 5 to 12 years, both immediately following the intervention and 1 hr later. In addition, a second aim of this research was to examine whether child-friendly positive exemplar exposure would similarly reduce adults' implicit racial bias. In a sample of White and Asian Canadians (N = 478; 182 male, 296 female), recruited from a community science center (children) and a public university in Vancouver (adults), 9- to 12-year-old children's racial bias was reduced up to 1 hr after this new intervention, while the effectiveness of the intervention on 5- to 8-year-old children's bias was less clear. Interestingly, this intervention did not reduce adult levels of bias. The results of a follow-up study (N = 96; 23 male, 72 female, 1 nonbinary) indicate that exposure to child exemplars can reduce bias in adults, but only when additional instructions are provided to internalize the presented association. Thus, the current study provides evidence that depicting counterstereotypical exemplars can reduce implicit racial bias in children for up to 1 hr after exemplar exposure, but there may be important developmental differences in the conditions required to change this bias. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Severe Cubital Tunnel Syndrome: Considerations for Nerve Transfer Surgery.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cubital tunnel syndrome is the second most common compressive neuropathy, next to only carpal tunnel syndrome in its incidence. Severe states of disease do not respond to nonoperative management. Likewise, functional outcomes of cubital tunnel surgery decline as the disease becomes more severe. The relatively long distance from site of nerve compression at the elbow to the hand intrinsic muscles distally makes it a race between reinnervation of the muscle and irreversible motor endplate degeneration with muscle atrophy. Loss of intrinsic function can lead to severe functional impairment with poor dexterity and clawing of the hand. While decompressing the nerve at the site of compression is important to prevent further axonal injury, until recently, the only option to restore intrinsic function was tendon transfers. Tendon transfers aim to restore thumb side pinch and control clawing with addition surgery. They also require the sacrifice of wrist extensors or finger flexors. In the past decade, nerve transfers to the distal portion of the ulnar nerve innervating these intrinsic muscles, originally described for proximal ulnar nerve injury or transections, have become increasingly popular as an adjunct procedure in severe cubital tunnel syndrome. Physicians treating severe ulnar neuropathy must be aware of these nerve transfers, as well as their indications and expected outcomes. RECENT FINDINGS: The so-called supercharged anterior interosseous nerve (AIN)-to-ulnar motor nerve transfer has become a mainstay for distal nerve transfers for ulnar neuropathy and/or injury. Ideal patients to undergo such a procedure demonstrate severe ulnar neuropathy on nerve conduction and electromyography studies, with reduced compound muscle action potential (CMAP) amplitude and fibrillations at rest. Recent studies demonstrate nerve transfers to be superior in intrinsic muscle reinnervation compared with nerve graft in the setting of large segmental nerve defects. Likewise, compared with decompression alone, patients undergoing the supercharge procedure are more likely to regain intrinsic function and less likely to need secondary tendon transfer surgeries. Finally, initial results for sensory nerve transfer to recover sensation in the ulnar-sided digits in severe cubital tunnel are more advantageous than for decompression alone. Distal nerve transfers offer a reliable, reproducible treatment option for the restoration of intrinsic hand function and protective sensation in the setting of severe cubital tunnel syndrome.

Who can speak that language? Eleven-month-old infants have language-dependent expectations regarding speaker ethnicity.

Research demonstrates that young infants attend to the indexical characteristics of speakers, including age, gender, and ethnicity, and that the relationship between language and ethnicity is intuitive among older children. However, little research has examined whether infants, within the first year, are sensitive to the co-occurrences of ethnicity and language. In this paper, we demonstrate that by 11 months of age, infants hold language-dependent expectations regarding speaker ethnicity. Specifically, 11-month-old English-learning Caucasian infants looked more to Asian versus Caucasian faces when hearing Cantonese versus English (Studies 1 and 3), but did not look more to Asian versus Caucasian faces when paired with Spanish (Study 2), making it unlikely that they held a general expectation that unfamiliar languages pair with unfamiliar faces. Moreover, infants who had regular exposure to one or more significant non-Caucasian individuals showed this pattern more strongly (Study 3). Given that infants tested were raised in a multilingual metropolitan area-which includes a Caucasian population speaking many languages, but seldom Cantonese, as well as a sizeable Asian population speaking both Cantonese and English-these results are most parsimoniously explained by infants having learned specific language-ethnicity associations based on those individuals they encountered in their environment.

The Development of Social Categorization.

Social categorization is a universal mechanism for making sense of a vast social world with roots in perceptual, conceptual, and social systems. These systems emerge strikingly early in life and undergo important developmental changes across childhood. The development of social categorization entails identifying which ways of classifying people are culturally meaningful, how these categories might be used to predict, explain, and evaluate the behavior of other people, and how one's own identity relates to these systems of categorization and representation. Social categorization can help children simplify and understand their social environment but has detrimental consequences in the forms of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Thus, understanding how social categorization develops is a central problem for the cognitive, social, and developmental sciences. This review details the multiple developmental processes that underlie this core psychological capacity.

Early Gender Differences in Core Values Predict Anticipated Family Versus Career Orientation.

Communion and agency are often described as core human values. In adults, these values predict gendered role preferences. Yet little work has examined the extent to which young boys and girls explicitly endorse communal and agentic values and whether early gender differences in values predict boys' and girls' different role expectations. In a sample of 411 children between the ages of 6 and 14 years, we found consistent gender differences in endorsement of communal and agentic values. Across this age range, boys endorsed communal values less and agentic values more than did girls. Moreover, gender differences in values partially accounted for boys' relatively lower family versus career orientation, predicting their orientation over and above gender identification and parent reports of children's gender expression. These findings suggest that gender differences in core values emerge surprisingly early in development and predict children's expectations well before they make decisions about adopting adult roles in their own families.

Foundations of infants' social group evaluations.

Previous research has suggested that infants exhibit a preference for familiar over unfamiliar social groups (e.g., preferring individuals from their own language group over individuals from a foreign language group). However, because past studies often employ forced-choice procedures, it is not clear whether infants' intergroup preferences are driven by positivity toward members of familiar groups, negativity toward members of unfamiliar groups, or both. Across six experiments, we implemented a habituation procedure to independently measure infants' positive and negative evaluations of speakers of familiar and unfamiliar languages. We report that by 1 year of age, infants positively evaluate individuals who speak a familiar language, but do not negatively evaluate individuals who speak an unfamiliar language (Experiments 1 and 2). Several experiments rule out lower-level explanations (Experiments 3-6). Together these data suggest that children's early social group preferences may be shaped by positive evaluations of familiar group(s), rather than negative evaluations of unfamiliar groups.

Sources of implicit and explicit intergroup race bias among African-American children and young adults.

Implicit intergroup bias emerges early in development, are typically pro-ingroup, and remain stable across the lifespan. Such findings have been interpreted in terms of an automatic ingroup bias similar to what is observed with minimal groups paradigms. These studies are typically conducted with groups of high cultural standing (e.g., Caucasians in North America and Europe). Research conducted among culturally lower status groups (e.g., African-Americans, Latino-Americans) reveals a notable absence of an implicit ingroup bias. Understanding the environmental factors that contribute to the absence of an implicit ingroup bias among people from culturally lower status groups is critical for advancing theories of implicit intergroup cognition. The present study aimed to elucidate the factors that shape racial group bias among African-American children and young adults by examining their relationship with age, school composition (predominantly Black schools or racially mixed schools), parental racial attitudes and socialization messages among African-American children (N = 86) and young adults (N = 130). Age, school-type and parents' racial socialization messages were all found to be related to the strength of pro-Black (ingroup) bias. We also found that relationships between implicit and explicit bias and frequency of parents' racial socialization messages depended on the type of school participants attended. Our results highlight the importance of considering environmental factors in shaping the magnitude and direction of implicit and explicit race bias among African-Americans rather than treating them as a monolithic group.

Reducing Children's Implicit Racial Bias Through Exposure to Positive Out-Group Exemplars.

Studies with adults suggest that implicit preferences favoring White versus Black individuals can be reduced through exposure to positive Black exemplars. However, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for these biases to be changed. This study included 369 children and examined whether their implicit racial bias would be reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars. Results showed that children's implicit pro-White bias was reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars, but only for older children (Mage  = ~10 years). Younger children's (Mage  = ~7 years) implicit bias was not affected by this intervention. These results suggest developmental differences in the malleability of implicit racial biases and point to possible age differences in intervention effectiveness.

Malleability of implicit associations across development.

The prevalence of implicit intergroup bias in adults underscores the importance of knowing when during development such biases are most amenable to change. Although research suggests that implicit intergroup bias undergoes little change across development, no studies have directly examined whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for novel implicit associations to form or change. The present study examined this issue among children ages 5-12. Results from over 800 children provided evidence that novel implicit associations formed quickly, regardless of child age, association type (evaluative or non-evaluative) or the target of the association (social or non-social). Moreover, the magnitude of these changes was comparable across conditions. Coupled with similar findings among adults, these data underscore the importance of first impressions in shaping implicit intergroup bias and provide further evidence that the acquisition of implicit associations is governed by a domain-general mechanism that may be fully in place by age 5.

Using Behavioral Consensus to Learn about Social Conventions in Early Childhood.

Adults make inferences about the conventionality of others' behaviors based on their prevalence across individuals. Here, we look at whether children use behavioral consensus as a cue to conventionality, and whether this informs which cultural models children choose to learn from. We find that 2- to 5-year old children exhibit increasing sensitivity to behavioral consensus with age, suggesting that like adults, young humans use behavioral consensus to identify social conventions. However, unlike previous studies showing children's tendencies to prefer and to learn from members of a consensus, the present study suggests that there are contexts in which children prefer and learn from unconventional individuals. The implications of these different preferences are discussed.

Unselective Overimitators: The Evolutionary Implications of Children's Indiscriminate Copying of Successful and Prestigious Models.

Children are both shrewd about whom to copy-they selectively learn from certain adults-and overimitators-they copy adults' obviously superfluous actions. Is overimitation also selective? Does selectivity change with age? In two experiments, 161 two- to seven-year-old children saw videos of one adult receiving better payoffs or more bystander attention than another. Children then watched the adults perform unnecessary actions on novel transparent devices. Children preferred the adult who received greater payoffs or bystander attention when asked questions like "Who do you think is smarter?" but overimitated both adults' unnecessary actions equally. Although older children overimitated more, unselectivity was consistent across ages. This pattern hints at a plausible adaptive function of overimitation: acquiring rarely demonstrated behaviors by practising them immediately.