Faculty Publications

Does Same-Sex Preference Make 3-4-Year-Olds More Gullible?

Document Type

Article

Keywords

selective trust, gender, bias to trust other’s testimony, same-sex preference

Journal/Book/Conference Title

The Korean Journal of Developmental Psychology

Volume

26

Issue

4

First Page

93

Last Page

105

Abstract

Prior research suggests that more than boys, girls have a stronger tendency to trust a testimony by an adult female. The present study examined whether this selective trust resulted from a same-sex preference that appears during preschool years, or to a general preference for a primary caregiver-like figure. In the experiment, children were first shown dishonest adult male playing games with another adult. They were then asked to play with this adult male. The children’s tendency to believe the adult male’s testimony was observed during this play session. Consistent with previous findings, our results showed that 4-year-old girls were less prone to believe a dishonest adult male’s testimony whereas they were much more willing to believe the dishonest testimony given by the same-sex adult. However, this tendency was not observed among 3 and 4-year-old boys. The findings suggested that girls tend to trust female adults based on a same-sex preference in situations requiring a judgment of accuracy or truthfulness. Furthermore, the results implied that 3-year olds might struggle to overcome the tendency to trust an adult’s testimony.

Department

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Original Publication Date

1-1-2013

Language

ko

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