ERIC Number: EJ1010261
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-May
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0961-205X
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Children Selectively Trust Individuals Who Have Imitated Them
Over, Harriet; Carpenter, Malinda; Spears, Russell; Gattis, Merideth
Social Development, v22 n2 p215-224 May 2013
We investigated the influence of being imitated on children's subsequent trust. Five- to six-year-olds interacted with one experimenter who mimicked their choices and another experimenter who made different choices. Children were then presented with two tests. In a preference test, the experimenters offered conflicting preferences for the contents of two opaque boxes, and children were asked to choose a box. In a factual claims test, the experimenters offered conflicting claims about the referent for a novel word, and children were asked to state which object the word referred to. Children were significantly more likely to endorse both the preferences and the factual claims of the experimenter who had mimicked them. These results demonstrate that imitation is a powerful means of social influence in development. (Contains 1 figure.)
Descriptors: Young Children, Trust (Psychology), Imitation, Novelty (Stimulus Dimension), Preferences, Social Influences, Foreign Countries, Pictorial Stimuli, Visual Stimuli, Kindergarten, Social Development
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Kindergarten
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Germany
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A