Abstract

The moment a child walks into a new classroom, teachers and classmates form an impression based on minimal information. Yet, little is known about the accuracy of such impressions when it concerns children’s social functioning at school. The current study examined the accuracy of children’s, teachers’ and adults’ impressions of 18 unacquainted children based on thin slices of behavior. The likeability, popularity, prosocial behavior, aggression, and exclusion of these children were judged by 101 children, 79 elementary school teachers, and 68 young adults based on 20-second video clips. Judges were better than chance in predicting popularity and prosocial behavior, but worse than chance in predicting aggression and exclusion. Female judges were more accurate judging social exclusion of same-sex than other-sex targets. Teachers were more accurate than children in their judgments of prosocial behavior. The current study shows that confidence in one’s impression of aggression and exclusion in unacquainted children based on minimal information is not warranted.

摘要

当孩子走进新教室的那一刻，老师和同学会根据最少的信息形成印象。然而，当涉及到孩子在学校的社会功能时，人们对这种印象的准确性知之甚少。目前的研究根据行为的片面检查了儿童、教师和成人对 18 名不熟悉儿童的印象的准确性。101 名儿童、79 名小学教师和 68 名年轻人根据 20 秒的视频片段对这些儿童的可爱程度、受欢迎程度、亲社会行为、攻击性和排斥性进行了评判。法官在预测受欢迎程度和亲社会行为方面比机会好，但在预测攻击性和排斥性方面比机会差。女性法官比其他性别目标更准确地判断同性的社会排斥。教师对亲社会行为的判断比儿童更准确。目前的研究表明，基于最少的信息，对一个人对不认识的孩子的攻击和排斥印象的信心是没有保证的。