Respect or Fear: Investigating Infants Expectations of Social Learning from contrasting leadership styles.

Abstract

This study investigates whether infants expect subordinates “the red characters in figures 1-4” to learn from leaders, and not from bullies who use force and intimidation. It examines infant ability to differentiate between respect-based and fear-based social power, and how these representations influence their learning expectations. 14 Japanese infants aged 20-24 months participated in a between- subjects design conducted in a controlled laboratory setting. Participants were randomly assigned to observe animations depicting either a leader (respect-based power) or a bully (fear-based power). The experiment consisted of three phases, the Character Familiarization Phase, where infants were introduced to either a leader or a bully; the Label Familiarization Phase, where the main agent (The yellow character in figures 1-3) labeled a novel object as "Toma"; and the Test Phase, where infant reactions were measured as subordinates used a different label to the novel object "Mappi", in the absence of the main agent. Results revealed that in the leader condition, infants showed significantly longer looking times when the subordinates used a label different from the one introduced by the leader (Mean = 54.09 seconds, SD = 11.13), compared to the Bully Condition where the looking times were not significantly different when subordinates adhered to or deviated from the bully’s directives (Mean = 35.74 seconds, SD = 16.52). These findings indicate that infants had strong expectations for subordinates to follow the respected leader example, suggesting a recognition of and preference for learning from respect-based power. Conversely, the lack of significant differences in the bully condition suggests that infants do not expect learning to occur under fear-based power. The study provides evidence that infants anticipate learning behaviors more from figures who display respect-based power.

This study investigates whether infants expect subordinates “the red characters in figures 1-4” to learn from leaders, and not from bullies who use force and intimidation. It examines infant ability to differentiate between respect-based and fear-based social power, and how these representations influence their learning expectations. 14 Japanese infants aged 20-24 months participated in a between- subjects design conducted in a controlled laboratory setting. Participants were randomly assigned to observe animations depicting either a leader (respect-based power) or a bully (fear-based power). The experiment consisted of three phases, the Character Familiarization Phase, where infants were introduced to either a leader or a bully; the Label Familiarization Phase, where the main agent (The yellow character in figures 1-3) labeled a novel object as "Toma"; and the Test Phase, where infant reactions were measured as subordinates used a different label to the novel object "Mappi", in the absence of the main agent. Results revealed that in the leader condition, infants showed significantly longer looking times when the subordinates used a label different from the one introduced by the leader (Mean = 54.09 seconds, SD = 11.13), compared to the Bully Condition where the looking times were not significantly different when subordinates adhered to or deviated from the bully’s directives (Mean = 35.74 seconds, SD = 16.52). These findings indicate that infants had strong expectations for subordinates to follow the respected leader example, suggesting a recognition of and preference for learning from respect-based power. Conversely, the lack of significant differences in the bully condition suggests that infants do not expect learning to occur under fear-based power. The study provides evidence that infants anticipate learning behaviors more from figures who display respect-based power.