Determining social power: Do Chinese preschoolers integrate verbal and nonverbal cues?

Abstract

Children aged about 5 years can use verbal and nonverbal cues to determine social power. However, it is not clear what kinds of nonverbal cues preschoolers can use and whether they can integrate each nonverbal cue with verbal content when determining social power. Therefore, this research examined the ability of Chinese preschoolers to use and integrate visual, auditory, and verbal cues when determining social power as well as how this ability develops with age. In Study 1 (N = 478), 4- to 6-year-old Chinese children were recruited to judge the social power in visual, auditory, content, visual–auditory, visual–content, auditory–content, visual–auditory–content, and neutral cues. The results showed that 4-year-olds could not use any cues, 5-year-olds could not use content cues, and 6-year-olds could use all the cues. Children’s performance improved with increasing age and the number of channels. Study 2 (N = 240) investigated whether speech tempo influences children’s performance when using content cues. The results showed that 5- and 6-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, could use content cues to determine social power under normal and slow tempos. Study 3 (N = 80) was conducted to clarify which visual cues 5- and 6-year-olds can use and the age difference. The results revealed that 5- and 6-year-olds could use head, eye, posture, and mixed cues to determine social power, whereas their performance was steady for both 5- and 6-year-olds. In sum, the results show that Chinese children aged about 5 years are already able to use and integrate visual, auditory, and content cues when determining social power. Moreover, the ability to determine social power is gradually improved with age during the preschool period.