CHILDREN’S UNDERSTANDING OF OTHERS’ SOCIAL PREFERENCES BASED ON VARIOUS DIMENSIONS OF SHARED SIMILARITIES

Author

• Alyssa Cooley, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2026

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Choi, YouJung

Abstract

In daily life, people decide whom to befriend based on shared similarities. While prior research shows that children use shared similarities to interpret social interactions, it remains unclear how different dimensions of similarity influence social reasoning about third-party social preferences. This study investigated two primary questions “How do shared similarities such as language, toy preference, and behavior influence how children perceive others’ social preferences” and “How does age affect children’s ability to recognize shared similarities and identify targets of third-party social preference?”. Children aged 4 to 7 were randomly assigned to a similarity cue condition (i.e., Language, Preference, and Behavior) and watched videos in which a target actor exhibited a shared similarity with only one of two actors. Children were then asked to identify which actor the Target wanted to play with. To evaluate children’s confidence in their choice, children were asked to indicate how much the Target wanted to play with the selected actor on a 3-point Likert scale. Finally, children were asked which actor shared similarities with the Target. Results suggest that children were able to use behavioral-based similarity cues to correctly infer third-party social preference but could not reliably use language or social-based cues. Age did not have a significant effect on identifying shared similarities or third-party social preference. These results expand our understanding of the conceptualization of social preference, and the roles that various dimension of interpersonal similarities play in this understanding.