Psychological Development and Education ›› 2012, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (4): 345-352.

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3-to 4-Year-olds’ Trust Judgment Based on Trustee’s Trustworthiness Trait: Trait Effect and Age Differences

LI Qing-gong1, XU Fen2, ZHOU Xiao-mei1   

  1. 1. Department of Psychology, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China;
    2. School of Sciences, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310018, China
  • Online:2012-07-15 Published:2012-07-15

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Abstract: This study,which involved two experiments,investigated the ability to make trust judgment based on trustee's trustworthiness trait (TTT) of 96 3-to 4-year-olds.In experiment 1,all children were read 3 stories and each of the 3 stories had two kids and varied on the kids' traits.In Competence Story,two kids varied in competence (talented vs.untalented).In Honesty Story,two kids varied in honesty (honest vs.dishonest).Finally,in Benevolence Story,two kids varied in benevolence (kind vs.mean).At first,children would be asked to make judgment about which kid to trust.And later,they would be asked to make moral evaluation on these kids.Experiment 2 only changed the order of trust judgment and moral evaluation.Children were asked to evaluate the kids before to make trust judgment.The purpose to make the change in experiment 2 was to ease children's cognitive load when making trust judgment.The results were as follows: (1) the effect of trait was not found in the ability of 3-to 4-year-olds to make judgment based on TTT.The accuracies of trust judgment among three traits were not different.(2) In experiment 1,4-year-olds performed better than 3-year-olds in trust judgment.Age differences still existed after controlling children's ability of evaluation based on TTT.(3) In experiment 2,3-year-olds could make trust judgment accurately just as 4-year-olds did.There was no significant age difference.These results revealed that the reason why 3-year-olds can't make trust judgment based on TTT spontaneously just as 4-year-olds did was the heavy cognitive load of task.

Key words: Trust, Trustworthiness, Trait-understanding, Preschool Children

CLC Number: 

  • B844. 1
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