Some things are better left behind: Adolescent transmission of conflict narratives in a divided society

Bethany Corbett; Eva Grew; Conal McShane; Lara Wood; Christin Scholz; Elaine Flynn; Kathleen Corriveau; Mariah Kornbluh; Jenna Watling-Neal; Jing Xu; J B  Dautel

doi:10.1093/chidev/aacag124

Some things are better left behind: Adolescent transmission of conflict narratives in a divided society

Bethany Corbett
, Eva Grew
, Conal McShane
, Lara Wood
, Christin Scholz
, Elaine Flynn
, Kathleen Corriveau
, Mariah Kornbluh
, Jenna Watling-Neal
, Jing Xu
, J B Dautel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

This pre-registered study investigated how adolescents in a context of long-standing ethno-political polarization—Northern Ireland—transmit contested narratives. Much like the children's game of telephone, adolescents (N = 395, Mage = 14.56, SD = 2.16; range 10–18 years; 55.7% female, 42.0% male; 57.1% White-Irish, 32.5% White-British, 6.3% White-Other) read and recalled narratives for other participants; a process repeated sequentially across chains of four people. Narratives were either conflict-related or non-conflict control. Across homogeneous (same ethno-political group) and mixed (alternating group) chains, we found that information was rapidly lost or changed. This occurred to a greater extent in conflict compared to non-conflict conditions. We found no evidence for preferential transmission of ingroup-enhancing information, though nonpartisan recall slightly decreased with age. Adolescent information transmission may interrupt cycles of division in conflict-affected settings.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1-18
Number of pages	18
Journal	Child Development
Early online date	17 Jul 2026
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag124 https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag124
Publication status	Published online - 17 Jul 2026

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

The data and analytic code are available via the Open Science Framework and can be found here: https://osf.io/hy68j/files/osfstorage?view_only=fcd876889c2c4d22bdf0e54adc428171.

Funding

This publication is based on research supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. (funder DOI 501100011730) under the grant https://doi.org/10.54224/31206 and donation TWCF0609. Economic and Social Research Council postdoctoral fellowship funding (Project Reference: ES/X00600X/1) also contributed support to Bethany Corbett's involvement in the project.

Funders
Templeton World Charity Foundation

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Keywords

Adolescence
Conflict
Diffusion Chain
Polarization
Transmission bias

Access to Document

10.1093/chidev/aacag124Licence: CC BY
10.1093/chidev/aacag124Licence: CC BY

Cite this

Corbett, B., Grew, E., McShane, C., Wood, L., Scholz, C., Flynn, E., Corriveau, K., Kornbluh, M., Watling-Neal, J., Xu, J., & Dautel, J. B. (2026). Some things are better left behind: Adolescent transmission of conflict narratives in a divided society. Child Development, 1-18. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag124, https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag124

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abstract = "This pre-registered study investigated how adolescents in a context of long-standing ethno-political polarization—Northern Ireland—transmit contested narratives. Much like the children's game of telephone, adolescents (N = 395, Mage = 14.56, SD = 2.16; range 10–18 years; 55.7\% female, 42.0\% male; 57.1\% White-Irish, 32.5\% White-British, 6.3\% White-Other) read and recalled narratives for other participants; a process repeated sequentially across chains of four people. Narratives were either conflict-related or non-conflict control. Across homogeneous (same ethno-political group) and mixed (alternating group) chains, we found that information was rapidly lost or changed. This occurred to a greater extent in conflict compared to non-conflict conditions. We found no evidence for preferential transmission of ingroup-enhancing information, though nonpartisan recall slightly decreased with age. Adolescent information transmission may interrupt cycles of division in conflict-affected settings.",

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AU - Xu, Jing

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N2 - This pre-registered study investigated how adolescents in a context of long-standing ethno-political polarization—Northern Ireland—transmit contested narratives. Much like the children's game of telephone, adolescents (N = 395, Mage = 14.56, SD = 2.16; range 10–18 years; 55.7% female, 42.0% male; 57.1% White-Irish, 32.5% White-British, 6.3% White-Other) read and recalled narratives for other participants; a process repeated sequentially across chains of four people. Narratives were either conflict-related or non-conflict control. Across homogeneous (same ethno-political group) and mixed (alternating group) chains, we found that information was rapidly lost or changed. This occurred to a greater extent in conflict compared to non-conflict conditions. We found no evidence for preferential transmission of ingroup-enhancing information, though nonpartisan recall slightly decreased with age. Adolescent information transmission may interrupt cycles of division in conflict-affected settings.

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Some things are better left behind: Adolescent transmission of conflict narratives in a divided society

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Availability Statement

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

Access to Document

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