Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vvkck Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T12:08:49.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Origins of social fusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Philippe Rochat*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. psypr@emory.eduhttp://www.psychology.emory.edu/cognition/rochat/lab/Rochat.html

Abstract

Do instances of extreme self-sacrifice represent a valid paradigm to capture what makes typical individuals fuse with others? Probably not, because they can be viewed as aberrant phenomena. To understand the origins and mechanisms of human social fusion, one should first look at the development of babies and young children. Typical development represents the best alternative to Whitehouse's extreme model of social fusion.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aboud, F. E. (2003) The formation of in-group favoritism and out-group prejudice in young children: Are they distinct attitudes? Developmental Psychology 39(1):4860.Google Scholar
Bigelow, A. & Rochat, P. (2006) Two-month-old infants' sensitivity to social contingency in mother–infant and stranger–infant interaction. Infancy 9(3):313–25.Google Scholar
Cordonier, L., Nettles, T. & Rochat, P. (2017) Strong and strategic conformity by 3- and 5 year-old children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 36(3):438–51.Google Scholar
Gelman, S. (2003) The essential child: Origins of essentialism in everyday thought. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Haun, D. & Tomasello, M. (2011) Conformity to peer pressure in preschool children. Child Development 82(6):1759–67.Google Scholar
Kinzler, K. D., Dupoux, E. & Spelke, E. S. (2007) The native language of social cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104(30):12577–80.Google Scholar
Nesdale, D. (2008) Peer group rejection and children's intergroup prejudice. In: Inter-group attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood, ed. Levy, S. R. & Killen, M., pp. 3246. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nesdale, D., Durkin, K., Maass, A. & Griffiths, J. (2005) Threat, group identification, and children's ethnic prejudice. Social Development 14:189205.Google Scholar
Rochat, P. (2001) The infant's world. (2nd edition 2004.) Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Rochat, P. (2009) Others in mind: Social origins of self-consciousness. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Rochat, P. (2014/2015) Origins of possession: Owning and sharing in development. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rochat, P. (2018) The ontogeny of human self-consciousness. Current Directions in Psychological Science. Available online September 17, 2018 at https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721418760236.Google Scholar
Shutts, K. (2015) Young children's preferences: Gender, race, and social status. Child Development Perspectives 9(4):262–66.Google Scholar
Shutts, K., Brey, E. L., Dornbusch, L. A., Slywotzky, N., Olson, K. R. & Pavlova, M. A. (2016) Children use wealth cues to evaluate others. PLOS ONE 11(3):e0149360.Google Scholar