Abstract

We investigated preschoolers’ sociomoral evaluations of ingroup exclusion in two experiments (N = 120). Children were assigned to minimal groups using minimal group paradigm (Tajfel et al., 1971) and participated in a Cyberball paradigm (Williams et al., 2000) with their ingroup members. In the game, children experienced either ingroup exclusion (exclusion condition) or ingroup inclusion (inclusion condition). When linguistic cues about exclusion or inclusion were given (Experiment 1), 5-year-olds in the exclusion condition evaluated ingroup members more negatively than those in the inclusion condition. When there was no linguistic cue (Experiment 2), 4-5-year-olds also exhibited similar results in their moral evaluations as the children in Experiment 1. In the following social-preference task, children in both conditions preferred ingroup to outgroup member. These results suggest that children can evaluate ingroup members who excluded them as negative, yet they maintain a social preference toward them.