Selective Trust Of 4-5 Year Olds In Different Familiarity Information Providers

Children’s selective trust is affected by many factors.When faced with information provided by strangers,children are usually able to make rational trust choices based on the accuracy of the information provider.When the mother is the information provider,are children also able to make rational trust choices based on accuracy? To this end,this study used a classic experimental paradigm to examine 187 children’s selective trust of their mothers and strangers from the perspective of information provider familiarity.The study involved two experiments.In study 1,we used the conflict information source paradigm to explore the selective trust of 4–5-year-olds in their mothers under different relative accuracies,and compared the differences of children’s trust in their mothers and strangers.Choosing125 subjects,using 2(age: 4,5)×2(relative accuracy: 50%–50%,25%–75%)×2(familiarity comparison: mother with a stranger(pink),stranger and stranger(pink)three factors completely random design of experiment,and the dependent variable was the ratio of children’s choice of mother and stranger(the ratio of choice frequency and total number of times)on judgment problems and trust problems.The results showed that there was no significant gender difference in children’s selective trust towards their mothers.Under the condition of 50% to 50%,the probability of 4-5-year-old children choosing their mother on both questions was significantly higher than the random level;under the condition of 25% to 75%,the probability of 4-5-year-old children choosing their mother on both questions was lower than the random level;Children’s trust choice to mother is significantly higher than that of stranger,and when the relative accuracy of mother and stranger is 25%,children’s trust choice to mother and stranger is significantly lower than that when the relative accuracy of mother and stranger is 75%.In study 2,we used a single information source paradigm to explore the selective trust of 4-5-year-old children towards their mothers before and after independent inquiry,and compared the differences of children’s trust towards their mothers and strangers.Sixty-two subjects were selected,and a mixed experimental design of 2(age:4 years old,5 years old)×2(independent exploration: before and after exploration)×2(familiarity: mother and stranger)three factors was adopted.The dependent variable was the frequency of children choosing an alternative on the test question.The results showed that there was a significant maternal credulity bias in 4-5-year-old children before exploration.There was no significant difference in the trust choice between the mother and the stranger in the 4-5-year-old children after exploration,and they both rejected the answer of the mother or the stranger.In the generalization stage,there were significant differences in the trust choice between the mother and the stranger among the 4-5-year-old children.Only in the stranger condition,the children applied the accuracy of the information provider obtained by independent exploration to the generalization stage.Conclusions:(1)The 4-5-year-old children’s selective trust in the mother is affected by the accuracy of the mother.When the accuracy of the mother is unknown or has a high accuracy,the child will show trust in the mother;(2)Under the conditions of unknown accuracy and the same accuracy,4-5-yearold children’s trust choices in their mothers are significantly higher than those of strangers.