Overheard evaluative comments can affect young children's effort.
Fengling Ma1, Linghui Tang1, Yutong Jiang1
1Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University.
Journal of Experimental Psychology. General
|June 26, 2025
Summary
Children learn effort by overhearing comments about others. Positive or even negative evaluations of waiting behavior encouraged children to wait longer, highlighting social learning in effort regulation.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Child Development
Background:
- Children develop effort regulation by observing socially valued behaviors.
- Overheard evaluative comments serve as a crucial information source for children's social learning.
- Understanding how children interpret social feedback is key to their developmental trajectory.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how overheard evaluative comments influence children's effortful behavior.
- To examine the specific impact of positive, negative, and neutral evaluations on children's willingness to exert effort.
- To explore the role of social observation in shaping children's understanding of effort.
Main Methods:
- Four studies were conducted with 5-year-old Chinese children (N=180).
- Effort was operationalized as willingness to wait.
- Participants were exposed to different types of overheard evaluative comments about another child's waiting behavior.
Main Results:
- Overhearing positive comments about waiting increased children's waiting time.
- Surprisingly, negative evaluations (e.g., 'not smart') also led to increased waiting.
- Neutral or global negative comments had no significant effect on waiting behavior.
Conclusions:
- Children's effort regulation is influenced by overheard social evaluations, even negative ones.
- Social learning through observation plays a significant role in children's understanding and application of effort.
- The specific nature of evaluative comments impacts how children internalize and display effortful behaviors.
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