Citation

Molleman L, Ciranka S, van den Bos W. Proc. Biol. Sci. 2022; 289(1977): e20220045.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Royal Society of London)

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2022.0045

PMID

35765838

Abstract

Social learning is fundamental to human development, helping individuals adapt to changing circumstances and cooperate in groups. During the formative years of adolescence, the social environment shapes people's socio-cognitive skills needed in adulthood. Although peer influence among adolescents is traditionally associated with risky and unruly conduct, with long-term negative effects on educational, economic and health outcomes, recent findings suggest that peers may also have a positive impact. Here, we present a series of experiments with 10-20-year-olds (n = 146) showing that positive and negative peer effects reflect a domain-general factor of social information use which declines during adolescence. Exposure to disobedient peers provoked rule breaking, and selfish peers reduced prosocial behaviour, particularly in early adolescence. However, compliant peers also promoted rule compliance and fair peers increased prosociality. A belief formation task further revealed that younger adolescents tend to assimilate social information, while older adolescents prioritize personal views. Our results highlight early adolescence as a key window for peer-based interventions to improve developmental trajectories.

Language: en

Keywords

Adolescent; Adult; Humans; Social Environment; Educational Status; *Peer Influence; *Social Learning; belief updating; cooperation; human development; Peer Group; social influence; social learning