%0 Journal Article %A Vasil, Jared %A Price, Dayna %A Tomasello, Michael %+ Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society %T Thought and language: Effects of group‐mindedness on young children's interpretation of exclusive we : %G eng %U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000E-1134-4 %R 10.1111/cdev.14049 %D 2024 %* Review method: peer-reviewed %X The current study investigated whether age-related changes in the conceptualization of social groups influences interpretation of the pronoun we. Sixty-four 2- and 4-year-olds (N = 29 female, 50 White-identifying) viewed scenarios in which it was ambiguous how many puppets performed an activity together. When asked who performed the activity, a speaker puppet responded, “We did!” In one condition, the speaker was near one and distant from another puppet, implying a dyadic interpretation of we. In another condition, the speaker was distant from both, thus pulling for a group interpretation. In the former condition, 2- and 4-year-olds favored the dyadic interpretation. In the latter condition, only 4-year-olds favored the group interpretation. Age-related conceptual development “expands” the set of conceivable plural person referents. © 2023 The Authors. Child Development © 2023 Society for Research in Child Development. %K child development, controlled study, female; human, social group, thinking %J Child Development %V 95 %N 3 %& 657 %P 657 - 1040 %] e155–e163 %I Blackwell Publishing Limited %@ 0009-3920