ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

Acta Psychologica Sinica ›› 2019, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (1): 71-84.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2019.00071

• Reports of Empirical Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of facial attractiveness and information accuracy on preschoolers’ selective trust

TANG Weihai,ZHONG Rubo,XU Xiaoxu,LIU Xiping   

  1. School of Educational Science, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
  • Received:2017-05-02 Published:2019-01-25 Online:2018-11-26
  • Contact: Xiping LIU

Abstract:

The research area on children’s selective trust in testimony was initiated by Harris et al. (2014). Previous studies had found that knowledge, as a trustworthy source, is conditional. In addition, the certainty of new information that is decided by the knowledge cues can influence children’s selective trust. Bascandziev and Harris (2014) found that four- to five-year-old boys in an ask task did not show biased selective trust to an informant with a high facial attractiveness when they were learning new information. However, the difference in facial attractiveness was possibly not detected by the children and the children’s age was not controlled. Therefore, the aim of Experiment 1 was to find the characteristics of selective trust on the basis of facial attractiveness when children acquire new information. The goal of Experiment 2 was to examine whether information accuracy or facial attractiveness is the main factor influencing children’s selective trust.
Experiment 1 adopted a 3 (age group: four-, five-, six-year-old children) × 2 (gender: male, female) × 2 (task: ask, endorse) mixed design. A total of 63 four-year-old children (Mage = 54.72 months, SD = 2.06 months, 30 girls) and 66 five-year-old children (Mage = 66.00 months, SD = 1.47 months, 33 girls) were selected from two kindergartens in Tianjin. In addition, 66 six-year-old children (Mage = 78.12 months, SD = 1.80 months, 30 girls) were selected from an elementary school in the same city. Experiment 2 adopted a 2 (accuracy of information: 50% vs. 50%, 25% vs. 75%) × 3 (age group: four-, five-, six-year-old children) between-subject design. A total of 62 four-year-old children (Mage = 54.72 months, SD = 3.17 months, 28 girls) and 59 five-year-old children (Mage = 66.48 months, SD = 3.59 months, 27 girls) were selected from two kindergartens in Tianjin. Moreover, 56 six-year-old children (Mage = 78.12 months, SD = 1.80 months, 27 girls) were selected from an elementary school in the same city. All children in the two experiments participated in ask and endorse tasks using a laptop computer to selectively trust one of two informants with different levels of facial attractiveness.
The results of Experiment 1 revealed that four- to six-year-old girls and boys show selective trust to informants with high facial attractiveness in the ask and endorse tasks. Moreover, five-year-old children have stronger degree of selective trust to informants with high facial attractiveness than four-year-old children. No difference was found between five- and six-year-old children and between four- and five-year-old children. Girls were stronger than boys in the ask task, no difference between was found between them in the endorse task. The results of Experiment 2 revealed that four- to six-year-old children in equal- and unequal-accuracy conditions show selective trust to informants with high facial attractiveness when they completed ask task. Moreover, no difference was found among the three age groups on the degree of selective trust to informants with high facial attractiveness. However, when they completed the endorse task, children in the equal-accuracy condition did not show any preference to informants with high or low facial attractiveness. By contrast, children in the unequal-accuracy condition tended to selectively trust informants who had low facial attractiveness but mentioned more accurate names. However, no difference was found among the three age groups on the degree of selective trust to informants with low facial attractiveness.
On the basis of these results, this study proposes the following: (1) Girls and boys aged four-six years show selective trust on the basis of facial attractiveness if the information is deficient. Moreover, girls aged four to six years are more venerable to social bias factors than boys of the same age range. (2) Four- to six-year-old children can make rational judgments on the reliability of the information provided by informants if the information is sufficient.

Key words: preschoolers, accuracy of information, facial attractiveness, selective trust, social prejudice

CLC Number: