Children aged 5 to 9 exhibit signs of partisanship, favoring their group's claims over evidence, according to a study published on July 10, 2026, in the journal Cognition. Researchers from New York University and other institutions discovered that when provided with privacy or incentives for accuracy, children's biases diminished significantly.
Understanding Children's Partisanship
The study, led by psychology professor Andrei Cimpian, explored how group affiliation impacts children's responses. Researchers noted that even young children tend to align with their group's views, often disregarding contradictory evidence. This behavior raises questions about the origins of political partisanship and its implications for future voting behavior.
In the experiments, children were divided into two groups based on T-shirt colors—green and orange—and asked to identify ambiguous images that characters from their assigned groups claimed to represent. The results showed a clear bias towards their own group's claims, regardless of the actual content of the images.
The Role of Privacy and Incentives
To investigate the reasons behind this partisanship, researchers conducted additional experiments. In one, children were told their answers would remain private. In another, they were incentivized to provide accurate answers with the promise of a prize. These conditions led to a marked decrease in partisan bias, indicating that privacy and motivation for accuracy are crucial in shaping children's responses.
