Do children really try to copy adults?

Contrary to what many adults believe, children don't just copy and mimic other people for no reason: they put a lot of meaning into the process.

There are probably no children who do not like to imitate their peers and even adults, repeating certain, at first glance, groundless actions. It is generally accepted that this is how children adapt to different situations. For example, if you ask a child to do something, he will first watch how another person does it, and only then copy his actions. By the way, most child psychologists believe exactly this. But researchers have noticed: if an adult suddenly decides to do a meaningless headstand, and only then begin the task, then the child will do the same, trying to stand on his head. And this, despite the obvious groundlessness of such an undertaking. Why does this happen?

Experts from the Universities of St Andrews and Durham believe that children's desire for mindless imitation is greatly exaggerated. The university staff conducted an experiment led by Kara Evans. More than 250 children of both sexes, aged 4-6, took part in the research. The children were shown a video in which adults took a designated container out of a transparent plastic box. The box had two compartments, and the container was in one of them. In order to take it, it was necessary to press a special paw, and then open the compartment. Since the box was transparent, it was clearly visible where the container was. But for some reason, the adults also opened the empty compartment first. In other words, the children were shown exactly the baseless action that they were supposed to copy.

The catch was that not in all cases the adults made a senseless opening of the empty section – in some cases only the right cell was opened. It turned out that the children copied the adults according to the same principle: both the senseless opening of the box and the meaningful opening of the right cell were repeated. After several repetitions, the little participants began to understand the absurdity of the actions, and the number of children purposefully opening the right section increased. It seemed that the participants began to understand which of the adults was doing the right thing.

Thus, scientists have come to the following conclusions: children are indeed inclined to repeat everything, but they do it thoughtfully. If they are offered different variations of any actions, they will most likely choose the most meaningful of them. It is important not to forget that children need to be protected from memorizing any meaningless and empty information – but this is already the concern of the adult generation.

Details of the study can be found at www.sciencenews.org/blog/growth-curve/kids-are-selective-imitators-not-extreme-copycats