Supplemental Materials

Children Distinguish Between Positive Pride and Hubris

by N. L. Nelson & J. A. Russell, 2015, Developmental Psychology

Method

Participants

Onehundred and eighty-three children (93 male, 90 female), ranging in age from six to sixteen years, participated. Children were divided into three age groups: 8-year-olds (average age: 101 mos.; range: 78-114 mos.; 30 male, 31 female), 10-year-olds (average age: 125 mos.; range: 115-133 mos.; 34 male, 27 female), and 12-year-olds (average age: 153 mos.; range: 134-198 mos.; 29 male, 32 female). The sample was comprised of 45% Caucasian, 3% Asian, 2% African American, 2% Hispanic, and 1% mixed race participants. Forty-seven percent of participants did not provide demographic information.

Results

An analysis of ratings for all 6 emotions showed patterns similar to those observed when only positive pride and hubris were included. An age (3) x sex (2) x emotion clip (6) x presentation order (4) repeated-measures mixed ANOVA showed no main or interaction effects related to the order of presentation of the clips (ps > .33). Thus, expression order was not included in further analyses.

An age (3) x emotion clip (6) x sex (2) repeated-measures mixed ANOVA indicated that children’s likelihood of matching the target label and expression increased with age, F(2, 177) = 10.77, p < .001, ηp2 = .11, and varied with emotion clip, F(5, 885) = 32.58, p < .001, ηp2 = .16. Least Significant Post-hoc tests (LSD) showed that children were most likely to match the expected label with expressions of anger and surprise (ps < .008), followed by expressions of embarrassment, happiness and hubris, and positive pride.

The emotion clip x age interaction, F(10, 885) = 2.83, p = .002, ηp2 = .03, showed that both 8- and 10-year-olds were more likely to match the label stuck-up with hubris than they were to match the label confident with positive pride (ps < .03) whereas 12-year-olds’performance was similar for the two expressions (p > .47). In addition, for both positive pride and hubris, the performance of 8- and 10-year-olds was similar (all ps > .06), whereas 12-year-olds were more likely to match the target label to the expected expression (ps < .003). Finally, for the non-target expressions, children’s performance matching the expected label and expression did not vary with age for anger and surprise (ps > .17), likely due to a ceiling effect. For expressions of happiness, performance for 8- and 10-year-olds was lower than that of 12-year-olds(ps = .02). For expressions of embarrassment, performance for 8-year-olds was lower than that of 10- or 12-year-olds (ps < .01).

Although there was no main effect of sex, the main effects of emotion clip and age were modified by interactions with sex. The age x sex interaction, F(2, 177) = 5.82, p = .004, ηp2 = .06, indicated that for 10-year-olds, girls were more likely to match the expected expression and label than boys were (p = .002). The emotion clip x sex interaction, F(5, 885) = 2.72, p = .02, ηp2 = .02, indicated that girls were more likely to match the expression intended to convey hubris with the label stuck-upthan boys were (p = .003).

Table S1

Proportion of Terms Attributed to Each Emotion

Emotion Label Chosen
Facial Expression / Happy / Angry / Surprised / Embarrassed / Positive Pride / Hubris / None / Total
Happy / .70 / .00 / .26 / .00 / .03 / .00 / .01 / 1.00
Angry / .01 / .93 / .00 / .01 / .01 / .03 / .01 / 1.00
Surprised / .03 / .00 / .91 / .02 / .01 / .01 / .02 / 1.00
Embarrassed / .01 / .00 / .00 / .80 / .02 / .03 / .14 / 1.00
Positive Pride / .18 / .00 / .01 / .02 / .51 / .25 / .03 / 1.00
Hubris / .03 / .01 / .01 / .00 / .25 / .66 / .04 / 1.00

Note. Maximum = 1.00. The term accepted for positive pride was Confident; the term accepted for hubris was Stuck-up. Expected term for each expression is given in bold.