A Cascade of Influences Shaping Violent Teens
Information cascade is an important concept in our life, it plays significant role in a broad range of branches and applications. Information cascades can be observed in a variety of areas, including financial crisis, marketing and politics, ect. People’s own decisions and behaviors could possibly be influenced by others’ decisions. Nonetheless, the cascades of information can act in either a positive of negative fashion. Young children form their beliefs by using the information obtained from behavior and opinions of their family members, teachers, and friends.
This article claims that “an interplay between behavior and environment during childhood create a cascade of influences that shape the teenager’s character”. None of the children were born bad or violent, the infants only imitate the behaviors of adults around them. And they learn the actions from observation and information cascades. The article presents a useful study which is that “children who were slightly impulsive and had mild behavioral problems in pre-school often faced harsh disciplinary action from parents and teachers”. The children miss the time to learn about the correct social and cognitive skills from people around them in pre-school, instead, they are living in an environment which is extremely aggressive and lack of reasonable parental supervision. This would be a serious problem and it is responsible for children being violent. Eventually, it will lead to negative outcomes to the children.
During the the pre-school time, the children gradually get exposed to more people, shape the view of the environment, and gain a sense of self. Therefore, this time period could influence some critical behavior traits of the children. The parents and teachers should make sure that the environment is safe enough for children in order to prevent them from being affected by negative information cascade.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/health/research/17teens.html?_r=0