| Selective trust refers to children’s judgment of the credibility of the information provider according to different clues,and selectively believe the information provided.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to study selective trust of children at different age and the factors affecting children’s selective trust in conflict situations.Studies have found that young children are more likely to selectively trust their ingroup members,which is called the in-group preference of selective trust.However,age,the features of the information,and the characteristics of the information provider will have additional impacts on this effect.The current study examined the effects of information correctness(a feature of the information)and credibility traits(characteristics of the information provider)on the ingroup preference of selective trust among 3-6 years old children through two studies.Study 1 recruited 60 children between 3-6 years old,and tested the ingroup preference of children’s selective trust,as well as the effects of age and information correctness on this effect.Findings indicated that when the correctness of the information was unknown,children between 3-6 years old were more convinced of their ingroup members,which confirmed the ingroup preference effect.However,when the correctness of the information was known and at the low level(i.e.,the ingroup member repeatedly answered incorrectly and the outgroup member repeatedly answered correctly),the selective trust of the child changed.The in-group preference of selective trust of children in the 5-year-old and 6-year-old groups significantly decreased,compared to children in the 3-year-old and 4-year-old groups.In light of Study 1,Study 2 examined the effects of age and credibility traits on the in-group preference effect of selective trust in young children.240 children aged 3-6 years old were divided into six groups.The conflicting or consistent between group membership(internal/external group)and credibility trait(honest/good/smart)were manipulated.Results showed that for 3-year-old children,in the inquiry condition,when the honesty trait and the group membership conflicted,the children did not have a trust preference.Under other experimental conditions,for 3-6 year old children,the credibility trait reduced the in-group preference of selective trust.In other words,regardless of conflict between the group membership and credibility,young children tended to choose information providers with positive traits(high levels of credibility). |
