Children show reduced trust in confident advisors who are partially informed

• Published in: Cognitive development Vol. 50; pp. 49 - 55
• Main Authors: Huh, Michelle, Grossmann, Igor, Friedman, Ori
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.04.2019
• Subjects: Advice-giving; Knowledge; Overconfidence; Partial information; Trust; Trust in testimony; Advice-giving; Partial information; Trust in testimony; Knowledge; Trust; Overconfidence
• ISSN: 0885-2014; 1879-226X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2019.02.003

•We examined if children’s trust in confident advisors depends on whether advisors have complete or partial information.•When informants had complete information, children trusted a confident informant over a cautious one.•When informants only had partial information, children’s trust in confidence was diminished.•Our findings are the first to suggest young children understand when confidence is unwarranted. Young children trust confident informants over cautious ones, and this tendency can lead them to heed the claims of informants whose confidence is unjustified. The ability to recognize overconfidence, and not be swayed by it, is therefore important for children to obtain accurate information and to make better decisions. In two experiments (total N = 232), we show that 4- to 6-year-olds use information about whether speakers are fully or only partially informed to judge whether confident claims should be heeded. In each experiment, children were shown scenarios in which a confident speaker and a cautious one gave conflicting claims. When both speakers were completely informed, children expressed more trust in the confident speaker’s claim. However, when both speakers only had partial information, children did not believe the confident speaker over the more cautious one. These effects did not vary with age. The present findings are the first to suggest that children as young as 4 understand when confidence is unwarranted, and they may indicate that reminders that a speaker is only partially informed could help children recognize when confidence is unjustified.