基于秘密分享的学前儿童对友谊关系的推断

秘密是隐藏在内心深处的东西,人们通常会与亲密的人分享和披露秘密。因此,追踪人们知道彼此的秘密可以作为社会关系的线索。本研究开展两个实验探究秘密分享对学前儿童推断友谊关系的影响。105名和60名幼儿分别参与实验1、实验2。实验1发现5岁以下的儿童大多数认为主角分享物质资源(玩具)的对象是主角的朋友,5～6岁的儿童大多数认为主角分享秘密的对象是主角的朋友,选择被分享秘密的人是分享者更可能的朋友的人数随着年龄的增长而增长; 实验2发现与分享积极的秘密信息和物质资源相比,大部分5～6岁的儿童更倾向于认为分享消极的秘密信息的双方存在友谊关系。研究结果说明至少5～6岁的儿童理解分享秘密的社会意义,并且5～6岁儿童把分享消极的秘密作为友谊关系更有力的标志。

Preschoolers Make Inferences about Friendship based on Secret Sharing

Secrets carry valuable social information,people are typically selective in whom they share their secrets to.In the current research,we examined the developmental trajectory of reasoning about secret sharing as an indication of third-party friendship for preschoolers through two experiments.Experiment 1 investigated whether children inferred friendship based secret sharing compared with sharing a physical object.The result showed that children before the age of 5 could not fully understand the social relationship represented by sharing secrets.They believed that sharing a physical object could better represent the friendship.Children aged 5-6 treated sharing a secret as a stronger cue to friendship than sharing a physical object.Experiment 2 explored the influence of sharing secrets with positive and negative information and physical objects on children’s inference of friendship.It was found that children were more inclined to think that there was friendship between the two parties sharing negative secret.The work suggested that negative secret disclosure should be a powerful cue of social relationships.Children could understand the broader social significance of secrets.