Psychological Development and Education ›› 2025, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (3): 313-321.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2025.03.02

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The Influences of Previous Clues on Children’s Selective Trust: The Role of Positive Information and Noncircular Explanations

ZHANG Jing1,2, LIU Gege1, CAO Bihua1   

  1. 1. School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang 330022;
    2. Jiangxi Key Laboratory of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Nanchang 330022
  • Published:2025-05-20

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Abstract: It is an important issue how children selectively trust information provided by others and acquire knowledge in children’s social cognitive development. A total of 194 children aged 5 to 9 were recruited in this study, and the 'conflicting sources’ paradigm was used to investigate the influence of previous background clues (social clues and epistemic clues) on children’s selective trust in different problem situations. Social clues were defined by evaluative information containing valence (positive/negative), while epistemic clues by explanations containing causal logic (noncircular/circular). The results showed that: (1) Children have a preference for background clues. In social clues, more children choose to believe positive information, and in epistemic clues, more children choose to believe noncircular explanation; (2) When both types of preference clues were presented at the same time, in the problem situations containing causal logic, 5-year-olds were inclined to learn from the informant with the previous clue of noncircular explanations. In the problem situations containing information valence, children only at the age of 9 tended to choose the informant with the previous clue of positive information, and children before the age of 9 selected randomly; (3) In problem situations without previous relevant clues (naming problems and interpersonal problems), children’s choices of the two informants were random. The results indicate that children’s usage of the two kinds of background clues presents different age development characteristics. As children grow older, they become flexible in making trust decisions based on the relevance of previous clues to problem situations.

Key words: children, selective trust, previous clues, positive information, noncircular explanations

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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