Abstract:

Human individual acquires knowledge largely via communication, i.e., others’ testimony. That is especially true during childhood. Developmental psychologists have recently devoted to whether and how preschoolers trust other’s testimony. On the one hand, preschoolers tend to accept what others tell them, a phenomenon called credulity bias. However, on the other hand, children show great competence in selectively learning from others. They are able to use numerous cues to guarantee more reliable information, including epistemic cues and social cues. As with controversy over infants’ theory of mind, there are two approaches to underlying mechanisms of epistemic trust, concerning whether children can appreciate informants’ mental states. Although the research of epistemic trust has made substantial progress, there are lots of topics that are worthy further investigation.

Key words: epistemic trust, credulity bias, theory of mind