The Digester

A study of 148 six- to eight-year-olds found that giving non-friend pairs a clear task to complete raised their conversational connectedness more than free play, while friends showed little change.

Researchers observed 148 children aged 6 to 8 from five UK schools in friend and non-friend pairs during free play and a goal-directed drawing task.
Connectedness was measured as the percentage of talk linked to the other child and rose overall by about four percentage points in the drawing task.
Non-friend pairs increased connectedness from 44% to 55% during the goal task, while friend pairs changed little from 48% to 50%.
Authors say shared goals help non-friends coordinate and communicate, whereas friends may rely more on nonverbal cues or shared routines.
The study was conducted by researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Sussex and published in Infant and Child Development.

Shared goals boost cooperation among non-friend children, study finds

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