Evaluating claims people make about themselves: The development of skepticism

The way in which children evaluate people's claims about their own psychological characteristics was examined. Among children ages 6-11 from the United States and China (total N=243), there was an age-related increase in skepticism about self-report concerning the highly value-laden characteristics honest, smart, and nice, but not concerning less value-laden characteristics. There were also differences between the countries: children from China showed greater skepticism about value-laden characteristics, and were more likely to assume that others might lie about characteristics that lack strong evaluative implications. Older children from China were especially likely to expect individuals to act in ways that are consistent with modesty norms when communicating about themselves.