1
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Juteau AL, Ibrahim YA, McIntee SE, Varin R, Brosseau-Liard PE. Do children interpret informants' confidence as person-specific or situational? PLoS One 2024; 19:e0298183. [PMID: 38718048 PMCID: PMC11078414 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0298183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2023] [Accepted: 01/20/2024] [Indexed: 05/12/2024] Open
Abstract
Children prefer to learn from confident rather than hesitant informants. However, it is unclear how children interpret confidence cues: these could be construed as strictly situational indicators of an informant's current certainty about the information they are conveying, or alternatively as person-specific indicators of how "knowledgeable" someone is across situations. In three studies, 4- and 5-year-olds (Experiment 1: N = 51, Experiment 3: N = 41) and 2- and 3-year-olds (Experiment 2: N = 80) saw informants differing in confidence. Each informant's confidence cues either remained constant throughout the experiment, changed between the history and test phases, or were present during the history but not test phase. Results suggest that 4- and 5-year-olds primarily treat confidence cues as situational, whereas there is uncertainty around younger preschoolers' interpretation due to low performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aimie-Lee Juteau
- School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
| | - Yasmeen A. Ibrahim
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada
| | | | - Rose Varin
- Psychology Department, University of Montreal, Montreal, Québec, Canada
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2
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Zhao L, Mao H, Harris PL, Lee K. Trusting young children to help causes them to cheat less. Nat Hum Behav 2024:10.1038/s41562-024-01837-4. [PMID: 38379064 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01837-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/07/2023] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024]
Abstract
Trust and honesty are essential for human interactions. Philosophers since antiquity have long posited that they are causally linked. Evidence shows that honesty elicits trust from others, but little is known about the reverse: does trust lead to honesty? Here we experimentally investigated whether trusting young children to help can cause them to become more honest (total N = 328 across five studies; 168 boys; mean age, 5.94 years; s.d., 0.28 years). We observed kindergarten children's cheating behaviour after they had been entrusted by an adult to help her with a task. Children who were trusted cheated less than children who were not trusted. Our study provides clear evidence for the causal effect of trust on honesty and contributes to understanding how social factors influence morality. This finding also points to the potential of using adult trust as an effective method to promote honesty in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Li Zhao
- Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for the Development and Care of Infants and Young Children, Hangzhou, PR China.
- Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, PR China.
| | - Haiying Mao
- Department of Psychology, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, PR China
- Department of Psychology, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Paul L Harris
- Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - Kang Lee
- Dr Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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3
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Zhang B, Deng Z, Zhang H, Chen Y. Do preschoolers always trust the majority? The influence of familiarity and expertise of a dissenter in a Chinese sample. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2303] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Bixi Zhang
- College of Education Michigan State University East Lansing Michigan USA
| | - Zhijun Deng
- School of Child Development and Education China Women's University Beijing China
| | - Heyi Zhang
- Institute (Department) of Early Childhood Education Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University Beijing China
| | - Yinghe Chen
- Institute of Developmental Psychology School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University Beijing China
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4
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Mascaro O, Kovács Á. The origins of trust: Humans' reliance on communicative cues supersedes firsthand experience during the second year of life. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13223. [PMID: 34962696 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2020] [Revised: 10/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
How do people learn about things that they have never perceived or inferred-like molecules, miracles or Marie-Antoinette? For many thinkers, trust is the answer. Humans rely on communicated information, sometimes even when it contradicts blatantly their firsthand experience. We investigate the early ontogeny of this trust using a non-verbal search paradigm in four main studies and three supplementary studies (N = 208). Infants and toddlers first see where a reward is, and then an informant communicates to them that it is in another location. We use this general experimental set-up to assess the role of age, informants' knowledge, cue's familiarity, and communicative context on trust in communicated information. Results reveal that infants and toddlers quickly trust familiar and novel communicative cues from well-informed adults. When searching for the reward, they follow a well-informed adults' communicative cue, even when it contradicts what they just saw. Furthermore, infants are less likely to be guided by familiar and novel cues from poorly informed adults than toddlers. Thus, reliance on communication is calibrated during early childhood, up to the point of overriding evidence about informants' knowledge. Moreover, toddlers trust much more strongly a novel cue when it is used in a communicative manner. Toddlers' trust cannot be explained by mere compliance: it is highly reduced when communicated information is pitted against what participants currently see. Thus, humans' strong tendency to rely on familiar and novel communicative cues emerges in infancy, and intensifies during the second year of life. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Mascaro
- CNRS/Université Paris Descartes, Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center UMR 8002, 45 rue des Saints Pères, Paris, 75014, France
| | - Ágnes Kovács
- Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Nádor utca 9, 1051, Budapest
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5
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Chu J, Schulz LE. Children selectively endorse speculative conjectures. Child Dev 2021; 92:e1342-e1360. [PMID: 34477216 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13647] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Young children are epistemically vigilant, attending to the reliability, expertise, and confidence of their informants and the prior probability and verifiability of their claims. But the pre-eminent requirement of any hypothesis is that it provides a potential solution to the question at hand. Given questions with no known answer, the ability to selectively adopt new, unverified, speculative proposals may be critical to learning. This study explores when people might reasonably reject known facts in favor of unverified conjectures. Across four experiments, when conjectures answer questions that available facts do not, both adults (n = 48) and children (4.0-7.9 years, n = 241, of diverse race and ethnicity) prefer the conjectures, even when the conjectures are preceded by uncertainty markers or explicitly violate prior expectations.
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6
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Boyer P. Deriving Features of Religions in the Wild : How Communication and Threat-Detection May Predict Spirits, Gods, Witches, and Shamans. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2021; 32:557-581. [PMID: 34519967 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-021-09410-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Religions "in the wild" are the varied set of religious activities that occurred before the emergence of organized religions with doctrines, or that persist at the margins of those organized traditions. These religious activities mostly focus on misfortune; on how to remedy specific cases of illness, accidents, failures; and on how to prevent them. I present a general model to account for the cross-cultural recurrence of these particular themes. The model is based on (independently established) features of human psychology-namely, (a) epistemic vigilance, the set of systems whereby we evaluate the quality of information and of sources of information, and (b) threat-detection psychology, the set of evolved systems geared at detecting potential danger in the environment. Given these two sets of systems, the dynamics of communication will favor particular types of messages about misfortune. This makes it possible to predict recurrent features of religious systems, such as the focus on nonphysical agents, the focus on particular cases rather than general aspects of misfortune, and the emergence of specialists. The model could illuminate not just why such representations are culturally successful, but also why people are motivated to formulate them in the first place.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pascal Boyer
- Departments of Anthropology and Psychology & Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA.
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7
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Lascaux A. Of Kids and Unicorns: How Rational Is Children's Trust in Testimonial Knowledge? Cogn Sci 2021; 44:e12819. [PMID: 32090379 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2018] [Revised: 01/24/2020] [Accepted: 01/24/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
When young children confront a vast array of adults' testimonial claims, they should decide which testimony to endorse. If they are unable to immediately verify the content of testimonial assertions, children adopt or reject their informants' statements on the basis of forming trust in the sources of testimony. This kind of trust needs to be based on some underlying reasons. The rational choice theory, which currently dominates the social, cognitive, and psychological sciences, posits that trust should be formed on a rational basis, as a result of probabilistic assessments and utility-maximizing calculations. In this paper, the predictions stemming from the rational choice approach to trust are systematically compared with the empirical evidence from the field of developmental psychology on how children establish their trust in testimonial statements. The results of this comparison demonstrate an obvious inadequacy of the rational choice explanation of the emergence and development of children's testimonial trust, regardless of which form of trust rationality-weighting, threshold, or ordering-is examined. As none of the three forms of rationality of children's trust in testimony squares with the empirical data, this paper introduces a new version of trust rationality, adaptively rational trust. It explores the compatibility of the concept of adaptively rational trust with the recent empirical findings in the area of developmental psychology and addresses some avenues for future research on the rationality of testimonial trust.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Lascaux
- IBS, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Affairs
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8
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9
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Schütte F, Mani N, Behne T. Retrospective inferences in selective trust. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2020; 7:191451. [PMID: 32257315 PMCID: PMC7062051 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191451] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2019] [Accepted: 01/28/2020] [Indexed: 05/23/2023]
Abstract
Young children learn selectively from others based on the speakers' prior accuracy. This indicates that they recognize the models' (in)competence and use it to predict who will provide the most accurate and useful information in the future. Here, we investigated whether 5-year-old children are also able to use speaker reliability retrospectively, once they have more information regarding their competence. They first experienced two previously unknown speakers who provided conflicting information about the referent of a novel label, with each speaker using the same novel label to refer exclusively to a different novel object. Following this, children learned about the speakers' differing labelling accuracy. Subsequently, children selectively endorsed the object-label link initially provided by the speaker who turned out to be reliable significantly above chance. Crucially, more than half of these children justified their object selection with reference to speaker reliability, indicating the ability to explicitly reason about their selective trust in others based on the informants' individual competences. Findings further corroborate the notion that young children are able to use advanced, metacognitive strategies (trait reasoning) to learn selectively. By contrast, since learning preceded reliability exposure and gaze data showed no preferential looking toward the more reliable speaker, findings cannot be accounted for by attentional bias accounts of selective social learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Friederike Schütte
- Developmental Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nivedita Mani
- Psychology of Language, University of Göttingen, Goßlerstraße 14, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus ‘Primate Cognition’, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Tanya Behne
- Developmental Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus ‘Primate Cognition’, Göttingen, Germany
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10
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Mascaro O, Sperber D. The pragmatic role of trust in young children's interpretation of unfamiliar signals. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0224648. [PMID: 31665195 PMCID: PMC6821092 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2017] [Accepted: 10/18/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
What role does children’s trust in communication play in their acquisition of new meanings? To answer, we report two experimental studies (N = 81) testing how three- to four-year-olds interpret the meaning of a novel communicative device when it is used by a malevolent and potentially deceptive informant. Children participated in a hiding game in which they had to find a reward hidden in one of two boxes. In the initial phase of the experiments, a malevolent informant always indicated the location of the empty box using a novel communicative device, either a marker (Study 1), or an arrow (Study 2). During that phase, 3- and 4-year-olds learned to avoid the box indicated by the novel communicative device. In the second phase of the test, the malevolent informant was replaced by a benevolent one. Nevertheless, children did not change their search strategy, and they kept avoiding the box tagged by the novel communicative device as often as when it had been produced by the malevolent informant. These results suggest that during the initial phase, children (i) did not consider the possibility that the malevolent informant might intend to deceive them, and (ii) did not ignore the unfamiliar communicative signal or treat it as irrelevant. Instead, children relied on the unfamiliar communicative signal to locate the empty box’s location. These results suggest that children’s avoidance of the location indicated by an unfamiliar signal is not unambiguous evidence for distrust of such signal. We argue that children’s trust in ostensive communication is likely to extend to unfamiliar communicative means, and that this presumption of trustworthiness plays a central role in children’s acquisition of new meanings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Mascaro
- Institute for Cognitive Sciences, CNRS UMR5304/Lyon 1 University, Bron, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Dan Sperber
- Social Mind Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
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11
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Mercier H, Majima Y, Claidière N, Léone J. Obstacles to the spread of unintuitive beliefs. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2019; 1:e10. [PMID: 37588403 PMCID: PMC10427286 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2019.10] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Many socially significant beliefs are unintuitive, from the harmlessness of GMOs to the efficacy of vaccination, and they are acquired via deference toward individuals who are more confident, more competent or a majority. In the two-step flow model of communication, a first group of individuals acquires some beliefs through deference and then spreads these beliefs more broadly. Ideally, these individuals should be able to explain why they deferred to a given source - to provide arguments from expertise - and others should find these arguments convincing. We test these requirements using a perceptual task with participants from the US and Japan. In Experiment 1, participants were provided with first-hand evidence that they should defer to an expert, leading a majority of participants to adopt the expert's answer. However, when attempting to pass on this answer, only a minority of those participants used arguments from expertise. In Experiment 2, participants receive an argument from expertise describing the expert's competence, instead of witnessing it first-hand. This leads to a significant drop in deference compared with Experiment 1. These experiments highlight significant obstacles to the transmission of unintuitive beliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Mercier
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d’études cognitives, ENS, EHESS, PSL University, CNRS, ParisFrance
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, UMR 5304, CNRS and Université de Lyon, Bron, France
| | | | - Nicolas Claidière
- Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LPC UMR 7290, 13331, Marseille, France
| | - Jessica Léone
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, UMR 5304, CNRS and Université de Lyon, Bron, France
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12
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Mercier H, Morin O. Majority rules: how good are we at aggregating convergent opinions? EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2019; 1:e6. [PMID: 37588400 PMCID: PMC10427311 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2019.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022] Open
Abstract
Mathematical models and simulations demonstrate the power of majority rules, i.e. following an opinion shared by a majority of group members. Majority opinion should be followed more when (a) the relative and absolute size of the majority grow, the members of the majority are (b) competent, and (c) benevolent, (d) the majority opinion conflicts less with our prior beliefs and (e) the members of the majority formed their opinions independently. We review the experimental literature bearing on these points. The few experiments bearing on (b) and (c) suggest that both factors are adequately taken into account. Many experiments show that (d) is also followed, with participants usually putting too much weight on their own opinion relative to that of the majority. Regarding factors (a) and (e), in contrast, the evidence is mixed: participants sometimes take into account optimally the absolute and relative size of the majority, as well as the presence of informational dependencies. In other circumstances, these factors are ignored. We suggest that an evolutionary framework can help make sense of these conflicting results by distinguishing between evolutionarily valid cues - that are readily taken into account - and non-evolutionarily valid cues - that are ignored by default.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Mercier
- Institut Jean Nicod, PSL University, CNRS, ParisFrance
| | - Olivier Morin
- Max Planck institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
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13
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Levy N. Due deference to denialism: explaining ordinary people's rejection of established scientific findings. SYNTHESE 2019; 196:313-327. [PMID: 30713358 PMCID: PMC6338713 DOI: 10.1007/s11229-017-1477-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2016] [Accepted: 06/19/2017] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
There is a robust scientific consensus concerning climate change and evolution. But many people reject these expert views, in favour of beliefs that are strongly at variance with the evidence. It is tempting to try to explain these beliefs by reference to ignorance or irrationality, but those who reject the expert view seem often to be no worse informed or any less rational than the majority of those who accept it. It is also tempting to try to explain these beliefs by reference to epistemic overconfidence. However, this kind of overconfidence is apparently ubiquitous, so by itself it cannot explain the difference between those who accept and those who reject expert views. Instead, I will suggest that the difference is in important part explained by differential patterns of epistemic deference, and these patterns, in turn, are explained by the cues that we use to filter testimony. We rely on cues of benevolence and competence to distinguish reliable from unreliable testifiers, but when debates become deeply politicized, asserting a claim may itself constitute signalling lack of reliability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil Levy
- Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
- University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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14
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Hermes J, Rakoczy H, Behne T. Making sense of conflicting information: A touchscreen paradigm to measure young children's selective trust. INFANT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 2018. [DOI: 10.1002/icd.2119] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Hermes
- Institute of Psychology, Department of Developmental PsychologyUniversity of Göttingen Göttingen Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition Göttingen Germany
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- Institute of Psychology, Department of Developmental PsychologyUniversity of Göttingen Göttingen Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition Göttingen Germany
| | - Tanya Behne
- Institute of Psychology, Department of Developmental PsychologyUniversity of Göttingen Göttingen Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition Göttingen Germany
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15
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Fedra E, Schmidt MFH. Older (but not younger) preschoolers reject incorrect knowledge claims. BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2018; 37:130-145. [PMID: 30094857 DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12264] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2017] [Revised: 07/09/2018] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
As epistemic and normative learners, children are dependent on their developing skills for evaluating others' claims. This competence seems particularly important in the current digital age in which children need to discern valid from invalid assertions about the world in both real-life and virtual interactions to ultimately gather and accumulate robust knowledge. We investigated whether younger and older preschoolers (N = 48) understand that a speaker's knowledge claim ('I know where X is') may be correct or incorrect given objectively accessible information (about whether the speaker had perceptual access to a critical event). We found that both younger and older preschoolers accepted correct knowledge claims that matched observable reality, but that only older preschoolers reliably rejected incorrect knowledge claims that did not match reality (the speaker lacked perceptual access). Nevertheless, a considerable proportion of younger preschoolers both rejected incorrect knowledge claims and gave valid explanations, suggesting that the ability to scrutinize epistemic claims develops gradually from around 3 to 4 years of age. These findings may help integrate research on children's norm and theory of mind development. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Preschoolers understand that non-epistemic claims (e.g., 'This is an X!') may be correct or incorrect, and they track a speaker's relevant characteristics in testimonial situations. It is not known what preschoolers understand about the validity of epistemic (knowledge) claims (e.g., 'I know that X'). What does this study add? Younger and older preschoolers accepted correct knowledge claims (children observed that a speaker saw a critical event and was thus knowledgeable). Only older preschoolers reliably rejected incorrect knowledge claims (the speaker did not see the critical event). Nevertheless, a considerable proportion of younger preschoolers showed competence in their evaluation of, and reasoning about, incorrect knowledge claims. Findings suggest that the ability to evaluate epistemic claims develops gradually from around 3 to 4 years of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emmily Fedra
- International Junior Research Group Developmental Origins of Human Normativity, Department of Psychology, LMU Munich, Germany
| | - Marco F H Schmidt
- International Junior Research Group Developmental Origins of Human Normativity, Department of Psychology, LMU Munich, Germany.,Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Bremen, Germany
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16
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Levy N. Nudges in a post-truth world. JOURNAL OF MEDICAL ETHICS 2017; 43:495-500. [PMID: 28526778 PMCID: PMC5537529 DOI: 10.1136/medethics-2017-104153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2017] [Revised: 04/04/2017] [Accepted: 04/18/2017] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Nudges-policy proposals informed by work in behavioural economics and psychology that are designed to lead to better decision-making or better behaviour-are controversial. Critics allege that they bypass our deliberative capacities, thereby undermining autonomy and responsible agency. In this paper, I identify a kind of nudge I call a nudge to reason, which make us more responsive to genuine evidence. I argue that at least some nudges to reason do not bypass our deliberative capacities. Instead, use of these nudges should be seen as appeals to mechanisms partially constitutive of these capacities, and therefore as benign (so far as autonomy and responsible agency are concerned). I sketch some concrete proposals for nudges to reason which are especially important given the apparent widespread resistance to evidence seen in recent political events.
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Affiliation(s)
- Neil Levy
- Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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17
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Castelain T, Bernard S, Mercier H. Evidence that Two-Year-Old Children are Sensitive to Information Presented in Arguments. INFANCY 2017. [DOI: 10.1111/infa.12202] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Thomas Castelain
- Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas; Universidad de Costa Rica
| | | | - Hugo Mercier
- Institut des Sciences Cognitives - Marc Jeannerod; CNRS
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18
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Clément F, Dukes D. Social Appraisal and Social Referencing: Two Components of Affective Social Learning. EMOTION REVIEW 2017. [DOI: 10.1177/1754073916661634] [Citation(s) in RCA: 48] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Social learning is likely to include affective processes: it is necessary for newcomers to discover what value to attach to objects, persons, and events in a given social environment. This learning relies largely on the evaluation of others’ emotional expressions. This study has two objectives. Firstly, we compare two closely related concepts that are employed to describe the use of another person’s appraisal to make sense of a given situation: social appraisal and social referencing. We contend that social referencing constitutes a type of social appraisal. Secondly, we introduce the concept of affective social learning with the hope that it may help to discriminate the different ways in which emotions play a critical role in the processes of socialization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Clément
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Daniel Dukes
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland
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19
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Mercier H, Sudo M, Castelain T, Bernard S, Matsui T. Japanese preschoolers’ evaluation of circular and non-circular arguments. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/17405629.2017.1308250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Hugo Mercier
- CNRS – Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Mioko Sudo
- Center for Research in International Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Thomas Castelain
- CNRS – Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France
- Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
| | - Stéphane Bernard
- Centre de Sciences Cognitives, Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Tomoko Matsui
- Center for Research in International Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan
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20
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Hermes J, Behne T, Bich AE, Thielert C, Rakoczy H. Children's selective trust decisions: rational competence and limiting performance factors. Dev Sci 2017; 21. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/06/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Hermes
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition; Göttingen Germany
| | - Tanya Behne
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition; Göttingen Germany
| | - Anna Elisa Bich
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
| | - Christa Thielert
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- Department of Developmental Psychology; Institute of Psychology; University of Göttingen; Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition; Göttingen Germany
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21
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Kim S, Paulus M, Kalish C. Young Children's Reliance on Information From Inaccurate Informants. Cogn Sci 2016; 41 Suppl 3:601-621. [PMID: 27988932 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2016] [Revised: 10/18/2016] [Accepted: 10/20/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Prior work shows that children selectively learn from credible speakers. Yet little is known how they treat information from non-credible speakers. This research examined to what extent and under what conditions children may or may not learn from problematic sources. In three studies, we found that children displayed trust toward previously inaccurate speakers. Children were equally likely to extend labels from previously accurate and inaccurate speakers to novel objects. Moreover, they expected third parties to share labels provided by previously inaccurate speakers. Only when there was clear evidence that the speakers' information was wrong (as in the case when speakers' perceptual access to the information was blocked), did young children reject the label. Together, the findings provide evidence that young children do not completely ignore the labels supplied by non-credible speakers unless there is strong reason to do so.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sunae Kim
- Department of Psychology, Sabanchi University
| | - Markus Paulus
- Department Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
| | - Chuck Kalish
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
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22
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Bernard S, Castelain T, Mercier H, Kaufmann L, Van der Henst JB, Clément F. The boss is always right: Preschoolers endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 152:307-317. [PMID: 27658803 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/28/2016] [Revised: 08/24/2016] [Accepted: 08/25/2016] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Recent research has shown that young children rely on social cues to evaluate testimony. For instance, they prefer to endorse testimony provided by a consensual group than by a single dissenter. Given that dominance is pervasive in children's social environment, it can be hypothesized that children also use dominance relations in their selection of testimony. To test this hypothesis, a dominance asymmetry was induced between two characters either by having one repeatedly win in physical contests (physical power; Experiment 1) or by having one repeatedly impose her goals on the other (decisional power; Experiment 2). In two subsequent testimony tasks, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly tended to endorse the testimony of the dominant over that of the subordinate. These results suggest that preschoolers take dominance into account when evaluating testimony. In conclusion, we discuss two potential explanations for these findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stéphane Bernard
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
| | - Thomas Castelain
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau Cognition (L2C2), 69675 Lyon, France; Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501 San José, Costa Rica
| | - Hugo Mercier
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Laurence Kaufmann
- Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jean-Baptiste Van der Henst
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau Cognition (L2C2), 69675 Lyon, France
| | - Fabrice Clément
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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23
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Hermes J, Behne T, Studte K, Zeyen AM, Gräfenhain M, Rakoczy H. Selective Cooperation in Early Childhood - How to Choose Models and Partners. PLoS One 2016; 11:e0160881. [PMID: 27505043 PMCID: PMC4978381 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0160881] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2016] [Accepted: 06/21/2016] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Cooperation is essential for human society, and children engage in cooperation from early on. It is unclear, however, how children select their partners for cooperation. We know that children choose selectively whom to learn from (e.g. preferring reliable over unreliable models) on a rational basis. The present study investigated whether children (and adults) also choose their cooperative partners selectively and what model characteristics they regard as important for cooperative partners and for informants about novel words. Three- and four-year-old children (N = 64) and adults (N = 14) saw contrasting pairs of models differing either in physical strength or in accuracy (in labeling known objects). Participants then performed different tasks (cooperative problem solving and word learning) requiring the choice of a partner or informant. Both children and adults chose their cooperative partners selectively. Moreover they showed the same pattern of selective model choice, regarding a wide range of model characteristics as important for cooperation (preferring both the strong and the accurate model for a strength-requiring cooperation tasks), but only prior knowledge as important for word learning (preferring the knowledgeable but not the strong model for word learning tasks). Young children's selective model choice thus reveals an early rational competence: They infer characteristics from past behavior and flexibly consider what characteristics are relevant for certain tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Hermes
- Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Tanya Behne
- Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Kristin Studte
- Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Anna-Maria Zeyen
- Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Maria Gräfenhain
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Leipzig, Liebigstr. 20a, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Waldweg 26, D-37073 Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Kellnerweg 4, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
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24
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Visual access trumps gender in 3- and 4-year-old children's endorsement of testimony. J Exp Child Psychol 2016; 146:223-30. [PMID: 26925718 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2015] [Revised: 11/27/2015] [Accepted: 02/02/2016] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Several studies have investigated how preschoolers weigh social cues against epistemic cues when taking testimony into account. For instance, one study showed that 4- and 5-year-olds preferred to endorse the testimony of an informant who had the same gender as the children; by contrast, when the gender cue conflicted with an epistemic cue--past reliability--the latter trumped the former. None of the previous studies, however, has shown that 3-year-olds can prioritize an epistemic cue over a social cue. In Experiment 1, we offer the first demonstration that 3-year-olds favor testimony from a same-gender informant in the absence of other cues. In Experiments 2 and 3, an epistemic cue-visual access--was introduced. In those experiments, 3- and 4-year-olds endorsed the testimony of the informant with visual access regardless of whether it was a same-gender informant (Experiment 3) or a different-gender informant (Experiment 2). These results demonstrate that 3-year-olds are able to give more weight to an epistemic cue than to a social cue when evaluating testimony.
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Mascaro O, Morin O. Epistemology for Beginners: Two- to Five-Year-Old Children's Representation of Falsity. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0140658. [PMID: 26484675 PMCID: PMC4618725 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0140658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2014] [Accepted: 09/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
This paper investigates the ontogeny of human's naive concept of truth. Surprisingly, children find it hard to treat assertions as false before their fifth birthday. Yet, we show in six studies (N = 140) that human's concept of falsity develops early. Two-year-olds use truth-functional negation to exclude one term in an alternative (Study 1). Three-year-olds can evaluate discrepancies between the content of a representation and what it aims at representing (Study 2). They use this knowledge to treat beliefs and assertions as false (Study 3). Four-year-olds recognise the involutive nature of falsity ascriptions: they properly infer 'p' from 'It is not true that "It is not true that "p""' (Study 4), an inference that rests on second-order representations of representations. Controls confirm that children do not merely equate being mistaken with failing to achieve one's goal (Studies 5 and 6). These results demonstrate remarkable capacities to evaluate representations, and indicate that in the absence of formal training, young children develop the building blocks of a theory of truth and falsity-a naive epistemology. We suggest that children's difficulties in discarding false assertions need not reflect any conceptual lacuna, and may originate from their being trustful.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Mascaro
- Jean Nicod Institute, Paris, France
- Cognitive Development Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
- Laboratoire sur le Language, le Cerveau et la Cognition, L2C2, CNRS/Lyon1 University, UMR5304, Lyon, France
| | - Olivier Morin
- Jean Nicod Institute, Paris, France
- Social Mind Center, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
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26
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Bernard S, Harris P, Terrier N, Clément F. Children weigh the number of informants and perceptual uncertainty when identifying objects. J Exp Child Psychol 2015; 136:70-81. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2015.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2014] [Revised: 03/10/2015] [Accepted: 03/11/2015] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
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27
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Van Reet J, Pinkham AM, Lillard AS. The Effect of Realistic Contexts on Ontological Judgments of Novel Entities. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT 2015; 34:88-98. [PMID: 25914442 DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2014.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Although a great deal of research has focused on ontological judgments in preschoolers, very little has examined ontological judgments in older children. The present study asked 10-year-olds and adults (N = 94) to judge the reality status of known real, known imagined, and novel entities presented in simple and elaborate contexts and to explain their judgments. Although judgments were generally apt, participants were more likely to endorse imagined and novel entities when the entities were presented in elaborate contexts. When asked to explain their reasoning, participants at both ages cited firsthand experience for real entities and general knowledge for imagined entities. For novel entities, participants referred most to indirect experiences when entities were presented in simple contexts and to general knowledge when those entities were presented in elaborate contexts. These results suggest that rich contextual information continues to be an important influence on ontological judgments past the preschool years.
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Bernard S, Proust J, Clément F. Four- to Six-Year-Old Children's Sensitivity to Reliability Versus Consensus in the Endorsement of Object Labels. Child Dev 2015; 86:1112-1124. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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29
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Bernard S, Proust J, Clément F. The medium helps the message: Early sensitivity to auditory fluency in children's endorsement of statements. Front Psychol 2014; 5:1412. [PMID: 25538662 PMCID: PMC4255489 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2014] [Accepted: 11/18/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recently, a growing number of studies have investigated the cues used by children to selectively accept testimony. In parallel, several studies with adults have shown that the fluency with which information is provided influences message evaluation: adults evaluate fluent information as more credible than dysfluent information. It is therefore plausible that the fluency of a message could also influence children's endorsement of statements. Three experiments were designed to test this hypothesis with 3- to 5-year-olds where the auditory fluency of a message was manipulated by adding different levels of noise to recorded statements. The results show that 4 and 5-year-old children, but not 3-year-olds, are more likely to endorse a fluent statement than a dysfluent one. The present study constitutes a first attempt to show that fluency, i.e., ease of processing, is recruited as a cue to guide epistemic decision in children. An interpretation of the age difference based on the way cues are processed by younger children is suggested.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Joëlle Proust
- Institut Jean Nicod, École Normale SupérieureParis, France
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30
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You seem certain but you were wrong before: developmental change in preschoolers' relative trust in accurate versus confident speakers. PLoS One 2014; 9:e108308. [PMID: 25254553 PMCID: PMC4177986 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2014] [Accepted: 08/13/2014] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study tested how preschoolers weigh two important cues to a person’s credibility, namely prior accuracy and confidence, when deciding what to learn and believe. Four- and 5-year-olds (N = 96) preferred to believe information provided by a confident rather than hesitant individual; however, when confidence conflicted with accuracy, preschoolers increasingly favored information from the previously accurate but hesitant individual as they aged. These findings reveal an important developmental progression in how children use others’ confidence and prior accuracy to shape what they learn and provide a window into children’s developing social cognition, scepticism, and critical thinking.
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Mercier H, Bernard S, Clément F. Early sensitivity to arguments: How preschoolers weight circular arguments. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 125:102-9. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.11.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2013] [Revised: 09/28/2013] [Accepted: 11/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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32
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Mills CM, Elashi FB. Children’s skepticism: Developmental and individual differences in children’s ability to detect and explain distorted claims. J Exp Child Psychol 2014; 124:1-17. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2014.01.015] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2013] [Revised: 01/23/2014] [Accepted: 01/24/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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33
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Clément F, Harris P, Bernard S, Antonietti JP, Kaufmann L. Rousseau’s Child. SWISS JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY 2014. [DOI: 10.1024/1421-0185/a000129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Modern thinking about human nature is notoriously divided between two contradictory notions: The Hobbesian tradition portrays men as driven by selfish desires, while the Rousseauian tradition recognizes altruistic proclivities as true motivations to cooperate. We tested preschoolers’ predictions about the prosocial or antisocial manner in which people would behave toward each other. Four stories were presented to 3- and 4-year-old children. In each story, the protagonists could either cooperate, act in terms of their own interests, or adopt a behavior unrelated to the ongoing scenario. Children as young as 3 years of age expected the protagonists to behave prosocially – and even more so if the protagonists were female. The results suggest that, even at an early age, children are inclined to adopt a “Rousseau-like” stance rather than a “suspicious” or “pessimistic” Hobbesian stance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Clément
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
| | - Paul Harris
- Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Clément F, Bernard S, Grandjean D, Sander D. Emotional expression and vocabulary learning in adults and children. Cogn Emot 2012; 27:539-48. [PMID: 23005583 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2012.724012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
A great deal of what we know about the world has not been learned via first-hand observation but thanks to others' testimony. A crucial issue is to know which kind of cues people use to evaluate information provided by others. In this context, recent studies in adults and children underline that informants' facial expressions could play an essential role. To test the importance of the other's emotions in vocabulary learning, we used two avatars expressing happiness, anger or neutral emotions when proposing different verbal labels for an unknown object. Experiment 1 revealed that adult participants were significantly more likely than chance to choose the label suggested by the avatar displaying a happy face over the label suggested by the avatar displaying an angry face. Experiment 2 extended these results by showing that both adults and children as young as 3 years old showed this effect. These data suggest that decision making concerning newly acquired information depends on informant's expressions of emotions, a finding that is consistent with the idea that behavioural intents have facial signatures that can be used to detect another's intention to cooperate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice Clément
- Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
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Bernard S, Mercier H, Clément F. The power of well-connected arguments: Early sensitivity to the connective because. J Exp Child Psychol 2012; 111:128-35. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2011.07.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2011] [Revised: 07/07/2011] [Accepted: 07/07/2011] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
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36
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Reber R, Unkelbach C. The Epistemic Status of Processing Fluency as Source for Judgments of Truth. REVIEW OF PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY 2010; 1:563-581. [PMID: 22558063 PMCID: PMC3339024 DOI: 10.1007/s13164-010-0039-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
This article combines findings from cognitive psychology on the role of processing fluency in truth judgments with epistemological theory on justification of belief. We first review evidence that repeated exposure to a statement increases the subjective ease with which that statement is processed. This increased processing fluency, in turn, increases the probability that the statement is judged to be true. The basic question discussed here is whether the use of processing fluency as a cue to truth is epistemically justified. In the present analysis, based on Bayes' Theorem, we adopt the reliable-process account of justification presented by Goldman (1986) and show that fluency is a reliable cue to truth, under the assumption that the majority of statements one has been exposed to are true. In the final section, we broaden the scope of this analysis and discuss how processing fluency as a potentially universal cue to judged truth may contribute to cultural differences in commonsense beliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rolf Reber
- Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Postboks 7800, N-5020 Bergen, Norway
| | - Christian Unkelbach
- Department of Psychology, University of Heidelberg, Hauptstrasse 47-51, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
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