Children’s belief in purported events: When claims reference hearsay, books, or the internet

Abstract

Children aged 4.75–8.50 years (n = 127) heard testimony about improbable or impossible events—referencing either spoken hearsay, a book, or the internet—and judged whether the events could occur in reality. A separate baseline group (n = 48) judged the events without hearing testimony. Relative to baseline, younger children (4 and 5 years) reported greater belief that improbable events could occur when testimony referenced hearsay and less belief when testimony referenced the internet. In contrast, older children (8 years) were less likely to believe improbable events could occur when testimony referenced hearsay and believed testimony that referenced a text-based source (a book or the internet) at rates similar to baseline. Beliefs about the occurrence of impossible events were similar (and low) across ages and testimony conditions. Implications for children’s learning from spoken and text-based sources are discussed.