Ethnic helping and group identity: A study among majority group children

Abstract

Two vignette studies were conducted on children's evaluations of ethnic helping. In the first study, 272 native Dutch children (mean age = 10.7) evaluated a child who refused to help in an intra-group context (Dutch-Dutch or Turkish-Turkish) or inter-group context (Dutch-Turkish or Turkish-Dutch). Children evaluated not helping in intragroup situations more negatively than not helping in inter-group situations. This suggests that they applied a general moral norm of group loyalty that states that children should help peers of their own group. In the second study, 830 children (mean age = 10.7) read the same vignettes after their ethnic group membership was made salient. In the inter-group contexts, children who strongly identified with their ethnic group evaluated an out-group member not helping an in-group member more negatively than vice versa. Thus, when ethnic identity was salient, children tended to focus more on group identity rather than on the principle of group loyalty.