Egger, Sara; Gasser, Luciano; Frei, Anna; Preisig, David; Beissert, Hanna; Dammert, Yvonne (2025). Promoting children's social reasoning about immigration-based exclusion and bystander behavior through literary discussions. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, p. 1549126. 10.3389/fdpys.2025.1549126

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Introduction: The current study is the first to investigate the effect of an argument-based intervention about children's literature on social reasoning about immigrant-based exclusion.

Methods: With a one-year intervention study, we examined social reasoning regarding inclusion decisions, moral judgments, and various bystander behaviors. A sample of 758 children (M = 10.33 years, SD = 0.68, 48.5% female) from 41 fourth and fifth grade classes participated in the study. The intervention was based on a cluster-randomized control group design and social reasoning was assessed by a social exclusion task with hypothetical intergroup scenarios.

Results and discussion: Multi-level analyses revealed intervention effects on reducing positive ratings of negatively reinforcing bystander behavior and passive bystander behaviors (i.e., agree with or ignore exclusive group behavior). However, no significant effects were observed for inclusion decisions, moral judgments, and moral justifications. The study thus highlights the potentials and limitations of argument-based intervention through narrative fiction regarding social reasoning about immigrant-based exclusion.

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