Summary: A Michigan State University study finds that preschool peers can influence one another’s personalities, suggesting that environment and social interaction—not just genes—play a major role in how personality develops.
When preschoolers spend time together, they often begin to adopt each other’s personality traits, a new study from Michigan State University reports.
Researchers at Michigan State University tracked two preschool classes of 4-year-olds over an entire school year, observing personality traits and mapping peer networks to see how children influenced one another. The study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, provides evidence that personality traits can be socially contagious among young children and are shaped by the social environment as well as by biology.
“Our finding, that personality traits are ‘contagious’ among children, flies in the face of common assumptions that personality is ingrained and can’t be changed,” said Jennifer Watling Neal, associate professor of psychology and a co-investigator on the study. “This is important because some personality traits can help children succeed in life, while others can hold them back.”
The research team examined how specific traits moved through peer networks. They found that children who regularly played with outgoing, energetic peers tended to become more extroverted over time. Similarly, children who spent time with peers who displayed diligence and focused work habits grew to resemble those peers in measures of conscientiousness. By contrast, traits related to anxiety and frustration did not show the same pattern of social transmission in this sample.
Emily Durbin, associate professor of psychology and co-investigator, emphasized the size of children’s influence on one another: “Parents spend a lot of their time trying to teach their child to be patient, to be a good listener, not to be impulsive. But this wasn’t their parents or their teachers affecting them – it was their friends. It turns out that 4-year-olds are being change agents.”
These findings have practical implications for parents, educators, and program designers. If positive traits such as sociability and diligence can spread through peer interaction, structured childcare and preschool settings might be designed to support beneficial peer influences. Conversely, understanding that some negative traits do not spread in the same way may help adults target the right kinds of interventions and supports for children who need them.
The study contributes to ongoing debates in developmental psychology about the balance between heredity and environment in shaping personality. While genetic factors remain important, this research highlights the dynamic role of social context during a formative period of childhood development.
MSU doctoral students Allison Gornik and Sharon Lo co-authored the study alongside the faculty investigators.
Source: Andy Henion — Michigan State University
Image credit: NeuroscienceNews.com image credited to Michigan State University.
Original research: The study appears in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Michigan State University. “Personality Traits ‘Contagious’ Among Children.” NeuroscienceNews. February 2017.
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