Imitation of Peers in Children and Adults

Jose Apesteguia, Steffen Huck, Jörg Oechssler, Elke Weidenholzer and Simon Weidenholzer
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Elke Weidenholzer: Department of Economics, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK

Games, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: Imitation of the successful choices of others is a simple and superficially attractive learning rule. It has been shown to be an important driving force for the strategic behavior of (young) adults. In this study we examine whether imitation is prevalent in the behavior of children aged between 8 and 10. Surprisingly, we find that imitation seems to be cognitively demanding. Most children in this age group ignore information about others, foregoing substantial learning opportunities. While this seems to contradict much of the literature in the field of psychology, we argue that success-based imitation of peers may be harder for children to perform than non-success-based imitation of adults.

Keywords: children; imitation learning; success-based imitation; peer imitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C C7 C70 C71 C72 C73 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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