Effects Of Emotion On Selective Trust In Children Aged 4-6

Trust is the bond used to maintain social connections,and trust in others can promote social interaction with others.Selective trust refers to the behavioral tendency of the information receiver to make trust judgments on certain characteristics or statements of the information provider based on the existing knowledge and experience and personal preferences.Emotion is an important influencing factor in adult trust behavior.So,in the world of young children,do emotions also affect their trusting behavior? This research is based on the common psychological activity of the information receiver and the information provider—emotion.The emotion of the information receiver(variable between subjects)and the emotion of the information provider(variable within the subject)are used as independent variables.Children’s selectivity Trust is the dependent variable to study whether emotion affects children’s selective trust and whether it will produce an emotional consistency effect.This study adopts a mixed experimental design of 3(emotions of information recipients: positive emotions,neutral emotions,and negative emotions)×3(emotions of information providers: positive emotions,neutral emotions,and negative emotions).A total of two studies are included.The first study took 139 4-6 years old preschool children as subjects to complete social tasks;the second study took 137 4-6 years old preschool children as subjects to complete cognitive tasks.The results of study 1 show that when children complete social trust tasks,their own emotions and the emotions of the information provider have a significant impact on their selective trust.Positive emotions have a great influence on children’s selective trust.Negative emotions can reduce children’s selective trust.The results of study 2show that,when completing cognitive tasks,in addition to the emotions of both parties,which have a significant impact on children’s selective trust,selective trust varies with the age of the information recipient.Compared with 4 and 5 year olds,6 year olds are less likely to trust others.Compared with the result of the first study,when children complete the cognitive trust task,in addition to their own emotions and the emotions of the information provider will affect their selective trust,the child’s own age will also affect their selective trust.Whether facing social tasks or cognitive tasks,mood congruent effect has an impact on children’s selective trust,but this effect only exists when both parties have positive emotions.Generally speaking,in the process of trust,the emotion of both sides of trust has an impact on children’s selective trust.Mood congruence has an effect on children’s selective trust when they complete social tasks or cognitive tasks,but this effect only exists when both sides are positive emotions.