What is it about?
Loyalty is central to friendship and guides peoples’ behaviors in conflicts. We find across three studies (N = 429) that as children mature, they increasingly expect loyalty from friends, seeing neutrality from friends in conflicts as a form of disloyalty.
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Why is it important?
Exploring children’s beliefs around side-taking and others’ emotional reactions to these decisions is essential for understanding how they may approach interpersonal conflicts and other friendship obligations that might guide their decision making in real-world contexts.
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This page is a summary of: “You didn’t take my side!”: When children expect others to be more upset at friends., Developmental Psychology, May 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/dev0002205.
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