Journal
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 167, Issue -, Pages 328-335Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.11.007
Keywords
Theory of mind; False belief understanding; Peer protagonist; Adult protagonist; Bias; Preschoolers
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Children perceive adults as more knowledgeable than peers. We tested whether this general preconception influences preschoolers' performance in a false-belief task. Children (4- and 5-year-olds; N = 146) watched videos showing a peer protagonist or an adult protagonist experiencing events that should lead the protagonist to hold a false belief. Then children were asked to infer the protagonist's perception of the situation. Age of the protagonist influenced 4-year-olds' judgments but not 5-year-olds' judgments. Specifically, 4-year-olds' performance was at chance when presented with.a peer protagonist. Their performance dropped further when presented with an adult protagonist and was significantly below chance. Children aged around 5 years performed above chance level regardless of whether they were presented with an adult or peer protagonist. This suggests that in the younger age group, children's tendency to regard adults as experts in general knowledge undermined their ability to accurately judge the possibility that an adult could hold a false belief. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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