The Effect Of Promises On Selective Trust In 4-6 Year Olds

The research on children's selective trust in assertion focuses on children's social learning of facts.There has been extensive research on the development of assertion selective trust,but little is known about the development of promise selective trust.Assertion and promise are two different logical behaviors.There are many differences in their definition characteristics.Assertion and promise have different purposes,and information content also has different restrictions.Assertion does not need to involve the event expected by the listener.Promise is always related to the action expected by the listener.Assertion expresses the belief of the information provider,and promise expresses the intention of the information provider.In view of these differences,we can not simply equate the research results of assertion selective trust with promise selective trust.In order to study the development characteristics of preschool children's selective trust in promise,three experiments were designed.Experiment 1 was conducted to study the effect of information providers' keeping their promises on children's selective trust.Children face two information providers,one keeps his promise,the other breaks his promise.Whether 4-6-year-old children will selectively trust information providers who keep their promises.The study found that 4-6-year-old children can distinguish between the information providers who keep their promises and those who don't,choose the information providers who believe in keeping their promises,and can give a reasonable explanation,showing the ability of selective trust.There is no difference in the ability of selective trust and reason explanation between children of different ages.In Experiment 2,we studied the influence of information providers' breach of promise on children's selective trust.Children are faced with two information providers,one intentionally breaking his promise,the other unintentionally breaking his promise.Will 4-6-year-old children selectively trust the information provider who unintentionally breaks his promise.It is found that4-year-old children can't distinguish between intentional breach of promise and unintentional breach of promise,and they don't show the ability of selective trust.5-year-old and 6-year-old children can distinguish between intentional breach of promise and unintentional breach of promise,choose to believe unintentional breach of promise,and show the ability of selective trust.4-year-old and5-year-old children can not give a reasonable explanation for which information provider they choose,while 6-year-old children can give a reasonable explanation for which information provider they choose.With the growth of age,children's ability of selective trust is improved.Older children show better ability of selective trust than younger children.The score of 6-year-old children's trust choice is higher than that of 5-year-old children's,and the score of 5-year-old children's trust choice is higher than that of 4-year-old children's.Experiment 3 was conducted to investigate the effect of information provider's commitment on children's selective trust.One information provider makes a promise first,then breaks the promise,and then makes a promise again.The other information provider makes a promise first,then breaks the promise,and then does not make a promise again.It is found that 4-6-year-old children can't distinguish the information providers who promise again after breaking a promise from those who don't promise again after breaking a promise.They can't give a reasonable explanation for which information provider to choose when they choose to believe the information providers who promise again after breaking a promise,and they don't show the ability of selective trust.There is no difference in the ability of selective trust and reason explanation between children of different ages.In Experiment 1,2 and 3,it was found that whether 4-6-year-old children had mother's breach of promise had no effect on children's score of selective trust.In short,this study found that children at the age of 4 have shown selective trust in the information providers who keep their promises,and children at the age of 5 can detect the intention of the information providers and choose to trust the information providers who have no intention to break their promises.The recommitment of information providers who have broken their promises does not help to rebuild children's trust.