Peer Pressure Can Start as Early as Pre-School

Think peer pressure doesn't start till the teen-age year's? A new study suggests it can start as early as Pre-School Researchers from Germany and The Netherlands studied peer pressure in 4-year old's, and found there is some evidence to say there is.

We as humans like to be liked among our peers. So we tend to judge things or make decisions based on those peers we are around most. Pre-School children are no different. A group of 96 boys and girls, all in Pre-School, were in the study. They wanted to see how Pre-Schooler's reacted to peer pressure.

In the first study, the kid's were divided up into small groups of four each. Each group was to look at four books with different animals, including pictures. The books were passed from group to group. One of the books, was a little different. On one page was the animal family, and on the opposite page was just one family member. They kid's were to identify what family member was on the page by itself. The child with the slightly different animal book, knew his/her book was different in that the child was not hearing of any of the animals from their book, but went along with the majority of other children anyway. The study showed, that out of 24 kid's, 18 agreed with the majority even though they knew it was the wrong answer.

In the second study, the children were put in a room with a lamp and the books. Depending on if the lamp was on or off, the kid's were to tell the answer out loud or point to the right animal. If the answer was to be said out loud, of the 18 children, 12 went with the majority. When they were only to point to the right answer, 8 out of 18 children went with the majority.

To the researchers, this meant that peer pressure has social reasons, as to not conflict with others in their peer group. It also showed that children as young as four, are subjected to peer pressure and can be succumbed by it.

Other Sources

Peer Pressure at Four year's old