Aashi Lala
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Valerie Umscheid
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Psychology / LSA
Program: UROP
Session: Session 5 (2:40pm – 3:30pm)
Authors: Aashi Lala, Valerie Umscheid
Abstract
Prior research has shown that children have been able to differentiate between heroes and villains and the motivations behind their actions (Umscheid et al., 2023). However, the perceptions of children regarding bullies and the rationale for their actions have been unexplored, and the current study builds on the subject of children’s beliefs of innate goodness in others by evaluating true self beliefs. We virtually interviewed 170 children, ranging from ages 7-12 years old, over Zoom, using a survey tool to collect both open-ended, as well as forced-choice responses. The claim that children perceive other people as inherently good has been disputed (Lefebvre, 2020) as that understanding is more present among adults, so prior to the interview, we asked parents of the participants to respond to a few pre-interview questions regarding their conversations with their children about bullying (if any conversations occurred). We examined whether parental reports of having conversations about bullying predicted children’s perceptions about the inherent goodness of bullies. We discovered that children whose parents discussed bullying in general or why bullies may react in certain ways overall were more likely to believe that these bullies are inherently good, both refuting and supporting Lefebvre’s (2020) claim. This study can have larger implications on gaining a better understanding of the mentality of children, and how it changes as they grow, based on their view of the inherent nature of others.
