Susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence in adolescence

Susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence in adolescence

Adolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence and previous studies have shown that this susceptibility decreases with age. The current study used a cross-sectional experimental paradigm to investigate the effect of age and puberty on susceptibility to both prosocial and antisocial inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of adolescence (London, England.) Vol. 84; no. 1; pp. 56 - 68
Main Authors: Ahmed, S., Foulkes, L., Leung, J.T., Griffin, C., Sakhardande, A., Bennett, M., Dunning, D.L., Griffiths, K., Parker, J., Kuyken, W., Williams, J.M.G., Dalgleish, T., Blakemore, S.J.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2020
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Elsevier
Subjects:
Adolescence
Adolescent
Adolescent Behavior - psychology
Adolescent development
Adolescents
Age
Altruism
Antisocial
Antisocial Personality Disorder - psychology
Child
Child development
Cross-Sectional Studies
Deviance
Female
Humans
Influence
London
Male
Prosocial
Puberty
Social behavior
Social cognitive development
Social development
Social influence
Social Influences
Surveys and Questionnaires
Teenagers
London
Adolescence
Social influence
Puberty
Antisocial
Social cognitive development
Prosocial
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Summary:Adolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence and previous studies have shown that this susceptibility decreases with age. The current study used a cross-sectional experimental paradigm to investigate the effect of age and puberty on susceptibility to both prosocial and antisocial influence. Participants (N = 520) aged 11–18 from London and Cambridge (United Kingdom) rated how likely they would be to engage in a prosocial (e.g. “help a classmate with their work”) or antisocial (e.g. “make fun of a classmate”) act. They were then shown the average rating (in fact fictitious) that other adolescents had given to the same question, and were then asked to rate the same behaviour again. Both prosocial and antisocial influence decreased linearly with age, with younger adolescents being more socially influenced when other adolescents’ ratings were more prosocial and less antisocial than their own initial rating. Both antisocial and prosocial influence significantly decreased across puberty for boys but not girls (independent of age). These findings suggest that social influence declines with increasing maturity across adolescence. However, the exact relationship between social influence and maturity is dependent on the nature of the social influence and gender. Understanding when adolescents are most susceptible to different types of social influence, and how this might influence their social behaviour, has important implications for understanding adolescent social development.
Bibliography:Joint first authors.
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ISSN:0140-1971
1095-9254
DOI:10.1016/j.adolescence.2020.07.012