YOUNG CHILDREN'S YIELDING TO FALSE ADULT JUDGMENTS.

The hypothesis that girls would yield more than boys to intermittent false judgments given by two adults, in a face-to-face confrontation, was tested by allowing 56 children of each sex, with an age range of 6-8 years, to see two adults make manifest errors in the selection of the correct match for a standard stimulus. Although the hypothesis was rejected on a strictly statistical basis, sex differences in yielding patterns were sufficiently strong to warrant further investigation. Approximately half of the children of each sex were able to maintain independence of judgment throughout. Of those children who yielded, more followed the adults completely than made compromise choices. Few children detected faking. A test for cross-sex effects between the adults and the children was insignificant.