Going With the Flow

In two experiments, 3- and 4-year-olds were tested for their sensitivity to agreement and disagreement among informants. In pretest trials, they watched as three of four informants (Experiment 1) or two of three informants (Experiment 2) indicated the same referent for an unfamiliar label; the remaining informant was a lone dissenter who indicated a different referent. Asked for their own judgment, the preschoolers sided with the majority rather than the dissenter. In subsequent test trials, one member of the majority and the dissenter remained present and continued to provide conflicting information about the names of unfamiliar objects. Children remained mistrustful of the dissenter. They preferred to seek and endorse information from the informant who had belonged to the majority. The implications and scope of children's early sensitivity to group consensus are discussed.

[1]  F. H. Hankins,et al.  The Psychology of Social Norms , 1937 .

[2]  S. Asch.  Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. , 1956 .

[3]  M. Sherif.  The Psychology of Social Norms , 1937 .

[4]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: Science and Practice , 1984 .

[5]  R. Cialdini.  Influence: Science and practice, 3rd ed. , 1993 .

[6]  H. Wellman,et al.  Children Talk About the Mind , 1995 .

[7]  R. Cialdini,et al.  Social influence: Social norms, conformity and compliance. , 1998 .

[8]  H. Wellman,et al.  Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: the truth about false belief. , 2001, Child development.

[9]  Paul L. Harris,et al.  The Ontogenesis of Trust , 2004 .

[10]  P. Harris,et al.  Trust in Testimony: Children's Use of True and False Statements , 2004, Psychological science.

[11]  V. Jaswal,et al.  Adults Don't Always Know Best , 2006, Psychological science.

[12]  P. Harris,et al.  Germs and angels: the role of testimony in young children's ontology. , 2006, Developmental science.

[13]  P. Harris,et al.  Preschoolers monitor the relative accuracy of informants. , 2007, Developmental psychology.

[14]  P. Harris,et al.  Children assess informant reliability using bystanders' non-verbal cues. , 2008, Developmental science.

[15]  P. Bloom,et al.  Three- and four-year-olds spontaneously use others’ past performance to guide their learning , 2008, Cognition.

[16]  P. Harris,et al.  Preschoolers continue to trust a more accurate informant 1 week after exposure to accuracy information. , 2009, Developmental science.

[17]  P. Harris,et al.  Choosing your informant: weighing familiarity and recent accuracy. , 2009, Developmental science.