Reasoning about the disclosure of success and failure to friends among children in the United States and China.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 44(5) of Developmental Psychology (see record 2008-12114-028). An error was introduced in the production process. The heading for the bottom half of Table 1 should be "China," not "Canada."] Children's reasoning about individuals' willingness to disclose their successes and failures was investigated among 194 6- to 11-year-olds in the United States and China. In Study 1, participants showed a valence-matching effect, in which they predicted that individuals would be more likely to disclose their performance to an audience of friends if the friends' level of achievement was similar rather than dissimilar. This effect was weaker among children from China, who were more likely to justify their responses with reference to the implications for learning together or improving future performance. Results of Study 2 suggest that for children from the United States, the disclosure of successful performance to a friend who has performed poorly is seen as implicitly conveying the message "I'm better than you," whereas for children from China the message is "I can help you to do better." Results are interpreted with reference to cultural values and expectations about helping others to learn. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)