%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 (advance online) : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000E-1134-4
%R 10.1111/cdev.14049
%7 2023-12-06
%D 2023
%8 06.12.2023
%* 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
%@ 0009-39201467-8624