Developmental trajectory of children’s epistemic and interpersonal trust decision for acting and testifying informants

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study is to examine children’s (5-to 10-year-old) epistemic and interpersonal trust decisions when they watched testifying and acting informants. Epistemic and interpersonal trust decision data were gathered from separate groups. Children in epistemic trust study responded to three ask questions. Children in interpersonal trust study responded to three interpersonal trust questions. Epistemic trust findings showed that children preferred testifying informant significantly higher than acting informant, children’s families’ SES and age did not affect their preference. For epistemic trust, girls preferred testimony informant significantly higher than acting informant. Interpersonal trust findings revealed that children preferred testifying informant significantly higher than acting informant. For interpersonal trust fourth graders (10 year-olds) preferred acting informant significantly more than other groups. The study suggests that as age increases children started to consider acting as a more important source of evidence than testimony for evaluating trustworthiness of person’s for interpersonal trust decisions.