Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2026
DOI
10.1093/chidev/aacag071
Publication Title
Child Development
Volume
Advance online publication
Pages
aacag071
Abstract
Generics like "kids love sugar" convey generalizations. But what is their scope? Are they taken to be global, or can generics communicate regularities restricted to "sociocultural bubbles"? Two studies examined the developing capacity for contextual restriction of generics in 137 4-7-year-olds (63/70/4 female/male/other) and 222 adults (128/89/5 female/male/other). Participants evaluated generics attributing group properties prevalent globally vs. "within-bubbles," with contextual cues that speakers conveyed broad vs. contextually restricted regularities. Both children and adults appreciated that generics can communicate group characteristics occurring within narrow sociocultural contexts. Adults selectively endorsed global or local generics depending on context, but younger children allowed socially contingent properties to leak into generic descriptions beyond the "bubble." Developmental discrepancies in interpretation and strategies to mitigate cross-generational miscommunication are discussed.
Rights
© the Society for Research in Child Development 2026.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License, which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.
Data Availability
Article states: "The data and code necessary to reproduce the analyses presented here are publicly accessible, as are the materials necessary to attempt to replicate the findings. Study 2 was preregistered. Data, code, materials, and the preregistration for this research are available at the following https://osf.io/mbnvr/overview?view_only=c516742744d844e88140fb9f3c2c5308."
Original Publication Citation
Vasil, N., Curiel, A., Zhu, T., Pederneschi, A., & Ritchie, K. (2026). Living in a bubble: How children and adults use generics to talk about social kinds in unique sociocultural contexts. Child Development. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag071
ORCID
0009-0008-4195-4659 (Zhu)
Repository Citation
Vasil, Ny; Curiel, Alejandro; Zhu, Tiffany; Pederneschi, Anna; and Ritchie, Katherine, "Living in a Bubble: How Children and Adults Use Generics to Talk About Social Kinds in Unique Sociocultural Contexts" (2026). Philosophy Faculty Publications. 110.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/philosophy_fac_pubs/110
Supplementary Data
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Development Studies Commons
Comments
Lay Summary: Children and adults often state generalizations about social groups using generic claims like “kids go to school.” But what is the intended scope of such generalizations? Are they taken to be global, or can generics describe what happens locally within “sociocultural bubbles”? Two studies with 4–7-year-olds and adults yielded two novel findings. Both children and adults appreciated that generics can be used to communicate group characteristics occurring only within narrow sociocultural contexts. However, younger children unexpectedly treated the “bubble” boundary as a “one-way membrane”; local properties leaked into the broader description of the group all around the world, but not vice versa. This discrepancy between children and adults’ generic interpretations opens the door for cross-generational miscommunication; mitigation strategies are discussed.