title: Optimistic expectations about communication explain children's difficulties in hiding, lying, and mistrusting liars.
abstract: We suggest that preschoolers' frequent obliviousness to the risks and opportunities of deception comes from a trusting stance supporting verbal communication. Three studies (N = 125) confirm this hypothesis. Three-year-olds can hide information from others (Study 1) and they can lie (Study 2) in simple settings. Yet when one introduces the possibility of informing others in the very same settings, three-year-olds tend to be honest (Studies 1 and 2). Similarly, four-year-olds, though capable of treating assertions as false, trust deceptive informants (Study 3). We suggest that children's reduced sensitivity to the opportunities of lying, and to the risks of being lied to might help explain their difficulties on standard false belief tasks.
authors.affiliation: Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod (CNRS UMR5304/Université de Lyon);Central European University,Budapest;Jean Nicod Institute (CNRS UMR8129),Paris.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mascaro
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History,Jena;Central European University,Budapest;Jean Nicod Institute (CNRS UMR8129),Paris.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Morin
authors.affiliation: Central European University,Budapest;Jean Nicod Institute (CNRS UMR8129),Paris.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sperber
mesh_terms: D002605:Character; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D003469:Culture; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000067656:Optimism / Q000523:psychology*; D011936:Reality Testing; D013067:Speech Perception; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology*; D014705:Verbal Behavior