Children's, adolescents', and young adults' thinking about different typesof disagreements

Individuals' thinking about different types of disagreements was examined. Ninety-six participants in third grade (mean age = 8 years 9 months), seven th grade (mean age = 13 years 2 months), and college (mean age = 21 years 1 0 months) judged the acceptability of believing and acting on different typ es of beliefs with which they disagree, the attributes of the persons with whom they disagree, and the relative importance of cultural uniformity or d iversity of belief. Findings indicated that participants' thinking did not simply become more tolerant with age; their thinking at all ages was constr ained by both the realm over which there was disagreement and the form of t he disagreement. At all ages, participants judged that some disagreements w ere acceptable and some unacceptable, described disagreeing others in terms of different (more or less positive) attributes, and judged that diversity of belief was important in some realms but uniformity was preferable in ot hers.