Trusting information from friends
Adults expect it but preschoolers do not
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9793585 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Narges Afshordi (0000-0003-1398-7644, University of Minnesota, corresponding author), Pearl Han Li (0000-0003-0249-3323, Duke University), M A Koenig (0000-0002-2186-6087, University of Minnesota), Melissa Koenig |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1161-1173 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Developmental Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/dev0001761 |
| PMID | 38661661 |
| OpenAlex | W4395465036 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
As adults, we might understand that beliefs often spread because people are strongly influenced by their friends, family, and other social connections. However, do we think those influences are strong enough to overrule direct evidence of a friend's unreliability? And do preschoolers expect people to show such biases toward friends and to privilege friendship over reliability? Across three experiments, we explored whether friendship influences the evaluations of trust when others learn labels for novel objects as well as personal opinions. After watching scenes involving a main character, her best friend, and a stranger, preschoolers and adults judged who would be trusted for information from the main character's perspective (third person) as well as their own (first person). Adults ( n = 128, 55 female, recruited online from across the United States) expected the main character to trust information from her friend even if she had been previously inaccurate, while basing their own first-person judgments on accuracy. In contrast, 4- and 5-year-olds ( n = 128, 62 female, from the United States) thought that the main character would be like themselves and prioritize accuracy over friendship. Further, preschoolers expected the main character to trust her (inaccurate) friend and (accurate) stranger equally when forming personal opinions. Thus, young children, unlike adults, do not expect others' epistemic trust to privilege friendship with the speaker over accuracy information. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Character (mathematics · Developmental psychology · Empathy · Friendship · Perspective (graphical · Perspective-taking · Privilege (computing · Child and Animal Learning Development · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Psychology · Social Psychology
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| Citations per year | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |