title: The boss is always right: Preschoolers endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate.
abstract: Recent research has shown that young children rely on social cues to evaluate testimony. For instance, they prefer to endorse testimony provided by a consensual group than by a single dissenter. Given that dominance is pervasive in children's social environment, it can be hypothesized that children also use dominance relations in their selection of testimony. To test this hypothesis, a dominance asymmetry was induced between two characters either by having one repeatedly win in physical contests (physical power; Experiment 1) or by having one repeatedly impose her goals on the other (decisional power; Experiment 2). In two subsequent testimony tasks, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly tended to endorse the testimony of the dominant over that of the subordinate. These results suggest that preschoolers take dominance into account when evaluating testimony. In conclusion, we discuss two potential explanations for these findings.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Electronic address: stephane.bernard@unine.ch.
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau Cognition (L2C2), 69675 Lyon, France; Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501 San José, Costa Rica.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Castelain
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mercier
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.affiliation: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau Cognition (L2C2), 69675 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Van der Henst
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Clément
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012931:Social Environment; D035502:Trust
keywords: Decisional power; Dominance; Physical power; Preschoolers; Testimony selection; Trust