The Emergence of Lying for Reputational Concerns in 5-Year-Olds

Research suggests that even young children engage in strategic behaviors to manipulate the impressions others form of them and that they manage their reputation in order to cooperate with others. The current study investigated whether young children also lie in order to manage their, or their group’s, reputation in front of ingroup and outgroup members. Five-year old children (n=55) were randomly assigned to an individual reputation condition or a group reputation condition. Then, they played a mini dictator game in which they could share privately any number of their or their group’s stickers with an anonymous child. Participants then met ingroup and outgroup members, established through a minimal group design, via a pre-recorded, staged Skype call. Group members asked the participant how many stickers she, or her group, had donated. Results revealed that children stated to peers to have donated more than their actual donation, with no differences between conditions and no difference toward ingroup and outgroup members. Findings suggest that by 5years of age, children use lying as a strategy to manage their reputation.

Aggression, Conflict, and the Formation of Intimidating Group Reputation

From inmates in prison gangs to soldiers in elite units, the intimidating reputation of groups often precedes its members. While individual reputation is known to affect people’s aggressiveness, whether one’s group reputation can similarly influence behavior in conflict situations is yet to be established. Using an economic game experiment, we isolate the effect of group reputation on aggression and conflict from that of individual reputation. We find that group reputation can increase the willingness to inflict costs on others but only when individuals are able to punish their fellow members. Even if internal discipline can sustain their shared reputation, more intimidating groups provide fewer benefits to their members in the short run. Using an agent-based simulation, we show that this might not be the case in the long run. Our findings yield insights into the effects of group reputation on aggression, conflict, and possible consequences for group survival.

Concern for Group Reputation Increases Prosociality in Young Children

The motivation to build and maintain a positive personal reputation promotes prosocial behavior. But individuals also identify with their groups, and so it is possible that the desire to maintain or enhance group reputation may have similar effects. Here, we show that 5-year-old children actively invest in the reputation of their group by acting more generously when their group’s reputation is at stake. Children shared significantly more resources with fictitious other children not only when their individual donations were public rather than private but also when their group’s donations (effacing individual donations) were public rather than private. These results provide the first experimental evidence that concern for group reputation can lead to higher levels of prosociality.

The Impact of Intergroup Helping on Third Parties’ Perceptions of Group Reputation

We investigated the consequences of intergroup helping for both the offering and the receiving group’s reputation in the eyes of third parties. In two experiments (N = 116 and N = 78), observers were presented with a group that offered versus requested help. Observers’ status beliefs confirmed the emergence of a status hierarchy that favored the group that offered help. Study 2 demonstrated that the newly emerged status differential quickly solidified. In particular, observers judged the help-offering group as more attractive and allocated more resources to this group. Consistent with the social structural hypothesis on stereotype content, attributions of competence were more relevant for groups’ reputation than attributions of warmth. We discuss the implications of our findings for societies comprising diverse groups.