title: The development of distrust.
abstract: Preschool-age children's reasoning about the reliability of deceptive sources was investigated. Ninety 3- to 5-year-olds watched several trials in which an informant gave advice about the location of a hidden sticker. Informants were either helpers who were happy to give correct advice, or trickers who were happy to give incorrect advice. Three-year-olds tended to accept all advice from both helpers and trickers. Four-year-olds were more skeptical but showed no preference for advice from helpers over trickers, even though they differentiated between helpers and trickers on metacognitive measures. Five-year-olds systematically preferred advice from helpers. Selective trust was associated with children's ability to make mental state inferences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA. kvanderbilt@ucsd.edu
authors.forename: Kimberly E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Vanderbilt
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Gail D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Heyman
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010553:Personality Development; D035502:Trust