The beautiful and the accurate: Are children’s selective trust decisions biased?

Bascandziev, Igor; Harris, Paul L.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2016.06.017

Cited by 48 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Of course, the fact that both children and adults use others’ facial features to make inferences about a broad range of characteristics and abilities is, in and of itself, quite surprising given that appearance does not necessarily predict whether someone will actually be nicer, stronger, or in this case, more knowledgeable (e.g., Zebrowitz, Andreoletti, Collins, Lee, & Blumenthal, ). However, the fact that preschoolers in this study seemed to associate appearance with knowledge, or lack thereof, does seem to fit with a growing literature in the domain of selective trust that suggests that children use both social and epistemic characteristics when determining others’ reliability (e.g., Bascandziev & Harris, , ; Koenig & Stephens, ). In other words, children may be sensitive to a host of cues that do not actually help them identify the most knowledgeable individual.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

“…Although children are clearly sensitive to some characteristics that are good indicators of whether someone will be a reliable source of information (i.e., whether someone has been accurate or not in the past), they also take note of more superficial traits that are less likely to be associated with reliability in their everyday lives. For example, preschoolers have been shown to evaluate others’ reliability based on their physical characteristics, like attractiveness (Bascandziev & Harris, , ; Tang, Zhong, Xu, & Liu, ) and whether they are well‐dressed or not (McDonald & Ma, ). Interestingly, very little research has explored the range of appearance cues that might affect children's trust in others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Looking smart: Preschoolers’ judgements about knowledge based on facial appearance

Palmquist

Cheries

DeAngelis

2019

British J of Dev Psycho

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Preschoolers use others’ behaviours to make inferences about what traits they possess (Harris et al., 2018, Ann. Rev. Psychol., 69, 251). The current study examined whether 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds also associate others’ behaviour with how they appear on the surface. Specifically, we asked whether children's sensitivity to different face–traits (e.g., Cogsdill et al., 2014, Psychol. Sci., 25, 1132) would bias them to associate knowledgeable behaviours with faces that adults rate as highly competent‐ or trustworthy‐looking. We find that preschoolers expect puppets with trustworthy‐looking faces to be knowledgeable about the functions of familiar objects. In contrast, children did not match a puppet's knowledge to facial features that adults rate as varying in competence. These data suggest that children, like adults, are biased to associate facial appearance and behaviour. Furthermore, this bias appears to be rooted in a response to the same facial features that have been found to govern judgements of trustworthiness across development (e.g., Jessen & Grossmann, 2016, J. Cogn. Neurosci., 28, 1728). What is already known on this subject? Preschoolers selectively trust others using epistemic and non‐epistemic cues (Harris et al., 2018). Preschoolers associate specific faces with trustworthiness and competence (Cogsdill et al., 2014). What the present study adds? Preschoolers infer that trustworthy‐looking characters will behave knowledgeably. Preschoolers do not infer that competent‐looking characters will behave knowledgeably. Children's reliability judgements are influenced by others’ appearance.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Looking smart: Preschoolers’ judgements about knowledge based on facial appearance

Palmquist

Cheries

DeAngelis

2019

British J of Dev Psycho

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Could the absence of a calibration effect in Experiment 3 stem from the model bias overpowering its effect? Previous research has revealed that attractiveness influences children's selective learning preferences [49], and can even trump more direct cues of credibility such as a person's prior accuracy [50]. Of course, we cannot be certain the model bias in our research stemmed from attractiveness per se; it could have been about charisma, eye-gaze, vocal tone, affect, and so forth.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Children's understanding of when a person's confidence and hesitancy is a cue to their credibility

Birch¹,

Severson²,

Baimel³

2020

PLoS ONE

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The most readily-observable and influential cue to one's credibility is their confidence. Although one's confidence correlates with knowledge, one should not always trust confident sources or disregard hesitant ones. Three experiments (N = 662; 3-to 12-year-olds) examined the developmental trajectory of children's understanding of 'calibration': whether a person's confidence or hesitancy correlates with their knowledge. Experiments 1 and 2 provide evidence that children use a person's history of calibration to guide their learning. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed a developmental progression in calibration understanding: Children preferred a well-calibrated over a miscalibrated confident person by around 4 years, whereas even 7-to 8-year-olds were insensitive to calibration in hesitant people. The widespread implications for social learning, impression formation, and social cognition are discussed.

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“…Children justified their choice by evaluating the speaker's behavior or appearance. We included appearance as previous studies have shown that children and adults (Bascandziev & Harris, , ; Todorov, Pakrashi, & Oosterhof, ; Willis & Todorov, ) use it as a cue to reliability. For example, “Weil der Frosch unerzogen ist” ( Because the frog is not well behaved ), “Weil die Giraffe schöner ist” ( Because the giraffe is prettier ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's Selective Trust in Promises

2018

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There has been extensive research into the development of selective trust in testimony, but little is known about the development of selective trust in promises. The present research investigates children's (N = 264) selective trust in others' promises to help. In Study 1, 6-year-olds selectively trusted speakers who had previously kept a promise. In Study 2, 5-year-olds displayed selective trust for speakers who had previously kept a prosocial promise (promise to help). In Study 3, 5-year-olds trusted a speaker, who kept a prosocial promise, over a helper. These data suggest that from the age of 5 children show selective trust in others' promises using prosociality, promise keeping, or both to inform their judgments.

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The beautiful and the accurate: Are children’s selective trust decisions biased?

Cited by 48 publications

References 26 publications

Looking smart: Preschoolers’ judgements about knowledge based on facial appearance

Looking smart: Preschoolers’ judgements about knowledge based on facial appearance

Children's understanding of when a person's confidence and hesitancy is a cue to their credibility

Children's Selective Trust in Promises

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