Children’s and Adults’ Understanding of Faux Pas and Insults

Abstract

We examined 7-to 11-year-old children's and adults' social understanding by presenting stories containing either a verbal faux pas or a deliberate insult. Participants were asked about the speaker's knowledge, intent, and affect, and about the listener's perception of the speaker's intent, and the listener's affect before and after the speaker apologized. Nine-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults recognized that the speaker's knowledge or ignorance, but younger children did not. All age groups judged that the speaker did not intend harm and that the listener would not perceive the listener as intending harm. Nine-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults rated the speaker as feeling worse in faux pas stories than in insult stories, but younger children did not. All age groups rated the listener as feeling worse in insult stories than in faux pas stories. Children judged that an apology would improve the listener's feelings more than adults did.

Autism and Faux Pas. Influences of Presentation Modality and Working Memory

“…In greater detail, the present study hypothesizes that (a) there will be significant differences between the 4 I. Garcia-Molina and R. A. Clemente-Estevan groups of autistic and NT children on the Faux Pas test such that the NT group will score higher regardless of modality (Baron-Cohen et al, 1999); (b) we speculate that the most difficult modality for autistic people will be either verbal, or mixed (verbal plus visual stimuli), and we expect significant differences according to modality in the ASD group such that their Faux Pas test outcomes are best in the purely visual modality (Loveland et al, 2001;Pierce et al, 1997); (c) we predict that while WM demands are to some degree controlled (Apperly et al, 2004;Apperly et al, 2005;Stone et al, 1998), WM will correlate with and explain variance in Faux Pas test outcomes in both groups. Furthermore, even though both groups are of a similar age and IQ, we predict that age will influence Faux Pas test outcomes since the study's participants include young children (Baron- Cohen et al, 1999;Pearson & Pillow, 2016).…”

“…However, at its inception, the Faux Pas test was created to measure advanced ToM in schoolchildren or pre-adolescents. At 7 to 11 years of age, when comprehension of similar situations would mature, children are able to recognize the recursiveness of the mental states involved in a faux pas, and its relationship to intentions, beliefs, and emotions (Baron-Cohen et al, 1999;Pearson & Pillow, 2016). In their study, the original authors of the Faux Pas test mentioned that autistic children had difficulty recognizing other people's mental states.…”

La comprensión moral de situaciones accidentales y deliberadas en escolares con autismo

“…Whereas in the NT group, WM did not correlate with Faux Pas results in any modality, in the ASD group, visual and verbal WM explained 19% to 28% of variability in Faux Pas test outcomes (verbal, visual, mixed), and IQ was excluded from all the regression models. In terms of age, although previous studies reported improved mentalistic test outcomes in older children -over 9 years old (Baron- Cohen et al, 1999;Pearson & Pillow, 2016), in our study, age correlated only with mixed-modality Faux Pas results in the NT group. Since the predictive model was not significant, it was not included in our detailed analyses.…”

“…However, at its inception, the Faux Pas test was created to measure advanced ToM in schoolchildren or pre-adolescents. At 7 to 11 years of age, when comprehension of similar situations would mature, children are able to recognize the recursiveness of the mental states involved in a faux pas, and its relationship to intentions, beliefs, and emotions (Baron-Cohen et al, 1999;Pearson & Pillow, 2016). In their study, the original authors of the Faux Pas test mentioned that autistic children had difficulty recognizing other people's mental states.…”

“…(3) we predict that while WM demands are to some degree controlled (Apperly et al, 2004;Apperly et al, 2005;Stone et al, 1998), WM will correlate with and explain variance in Faux Pas test outcomes in both groups. Furthermore, even though both groups are of a similar age and IQ, we predict that age will influence Faux Pas test outcomes since the study's participants include young children (Baron-Cohen et al, 1999;Pearson & Pillow, 2016). .…”