Young Children’s Trust in the False Testimony of ingroup versus outgroup speakers

Kyla Mcdonald

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14651946

Abstract

The present research explores whether young children display different levels of trust in the testimony of speakers from their own social group (ingroups) versus another social group (outgroups). Three- and 4-year-old children watched through a window as an adult hid a toy in one of three containers. The adult then told the child that she had put the toy in a container different from the one where it was actually hidden (i.e., false testimony). At the end the child was asked to retrieve the toy. The adult was either a Caucasian, native English speaker ingroup) or an Asian English speaker with a noticeable foreign accent (outgroup). Four-year-old children were credulous to the false testimony of the ingroup speaker, despite their firsthand observations, but were skeptical and relied on their own observations when the false testimony was provided by the outgroup speaker. In contrast, 3-year-old children remained credulous to the false testimony of both speakers. These findings were discussed in relation to children’s early preferences for ingroup members and the developmental shift in skepticism displayed by 4-year-old, but not 3-year-old children. This research will make a unique contribution to our understanding of how young children selectively learn from other people and why they remain credulous to some speakers, but not to others.

Highlights

The present data indicate that 4-year-old children were credulous toward the false testimony of an ingroup speaker that shared their ethnicity and accent, despite their firsthand observations of the event
When the false testimony was provided by an outgroup speaker from a different ethnic group and with a foreign accent, 4-year-olds were skeptical and relied on their own observations of the event to solve the problem
The Effect of Speaker Ethnicity It is important to note that in the present study, the role of speaker ethnicity in children’s trust was explored by examining the joint effect of race and accent, as previous findings indicate that younger children do not display biases for members of their own race (Aboud, 2003; Furby, 1971), but do demonstrate preferences for those that speak with their native accent (Kinzler, et al, 2007; Kinzler et al, 2010: Kinzler & Spelke, 2011; Kinzler & DeJesus, 2012; Moon et al, 1993; Shutts et al, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

4-year-olds were more likely to search for the toy based on their own observations and display skepticism of the false testimony when E2 was an outgroup than ingroup member, χ2 (1) = 10.17, p =. Discussion The present data indicate that 4-year-old children were credulous toward the false testimony of an ingroup speaker that shared their ethnicity and accent, despite their firsthand observations of the event.

Results

Conclusion