@article{ART003314234},
author={Sunah Choi and Kyong-sun Jin},
title={Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership},
journal={THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY},
issn={1229-0718},
year={2026},
volume={39},
number={1},
pages={91-110}
TY - JOUR
AU - Sunah Choi
AU - Kyong-sun Jin
TI - Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership
JO - THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
PY - 2026
VL - 39
IS - 1
PB - The Korean Society For Developmental Psychology
SP - 91
EP - 110
SN - 1229-0718
AB - This study investigated whether 3-year-old Korean children use shared language as a cue when forming expectations and evaluating others’ helping behaviors. Children first watched videos of four Asian women, two of whom spoke Korean and two Japanese. They then observed an interaction between two women who spoke the same language (ingroup condition: Korean–Korean or Japanese Japanese) or different languages (outgroup condition: Korean–Japanese or Japanese–Korean). When one woman required instrumental assistance, children rated how likely they expected the other to help.
Children in the ingroup condition expected higher levels of help than those in the outgroup condition.
Next, children observed the potential helper either assisting or ignoring an ingroup or outgroup member in need and then evaluated the behavior. Critically, however, children judged ignoring more negatively when the target was an ingroup member than when the target was an outgroup member.
Together, these findings indicate that by age three, children treat shared language as a socially meaningful marker, using it to generate differentiated expectations about prosocial obligations and to evaluate others’ behavior accordingly
KW - language-based group categorization;ingroup support;helping behavior;ignoring behavior; social cognition
DO -
UR -
ER -
Sunah Choi and Kyong-sun Jin. (2026). Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership. THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 39(1), 91-110.
Sunah Choi and Kyong-sun Jin. 2026, "Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership", THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, vol.39, no.1 pp.91-110.
Sunah Choi, Kyong-sun Jin "Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership" THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 39.1 pp.91-110 (2026) : 91.
Sunah Choi, Kyong-sun Jin. Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership. 2026; 39(1), 91-110.
Sunah Choi and Kyong-sun Jin. "Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership" THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 39, no.1 (2026) : 91-110.
Sunah Choi; Kyong-sun Jin. Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership. THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 39(1), 91-110.
Sunah Choi; Kyong-sun Jin. Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership. THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. 2026; 39(1) 91-110.
Sunah Choi, Kyong-sun Jin. Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership. 2026; 39(1), 91-110.
Sunah Choi and Kyong-sun Jin. "Three-Year-Olds’ Expectations and Evaluations of Helping Behavior Based on Language Group Membership" THE KOREAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 39, no.1 (2026) : 91-110.
