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The impact of positive and negative testimony on children’s attitudes toward others
- Source :
- PLoS ONE, PLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 12, p e0261075 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Public Library of Science, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Children can identify who is benevolent or malevolent not only through first-hand experiences and observations but also from the testimony of others. In this study, we investigated whether 5- and 7-year-olds (N = 128) would form their attitudes toward others after hearing testimony about that person’s past moral behavior and whether the valence of testimony would differently influence the children. In the positive condition, half of the participants gained information about three puppets: puppet A’s prosocial behavior by their own first-hand observation, testimony about puppet B’s past prosocial behavior, and testimony about puppet C’s past neutral behavior. In the negative condition, the other half also learned information about the three puppets: puppet A’s antisocial behavior by their own first-hand observation, testimony about puppet B’s past antisocial behavior, and testimony about puppet C’s past neutral behavior. Then they engaged in tasks that measured their behavioral attitudes toward the puppets and evaluated the goodness of each puppet to assess their attitudes at a cognitive level. Our results concluded that the children form their behavioral attitudes toward others based on testimony starting at the age of 7, and attitude formation at the cognitive level based on testimony is seen at age 5. Negative testimony, rather than positive testimony, influences the children’s attitudes toward others. In addition, the 7-year-olds’ use of testimony differs depending whether they are the allocators or the receivers of rewards. Our findings deepen understanding of how children rely on the verbal information around themselves when they navigate interactions with others.
- Subjects :
- Social Cognition
Male
Social Psychology
Science
Social Sciences
Research and Analysis Methods
Chi Square Tests
Families
Human Learning
Mathematical and Statistical Techniques
Learning and Memory
Child Development
Psychological Attitudes
Psychology
Learning
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Statistical Methods
Child
Children
Statistical Hypothesis Testing
Behavior
Multidisciplinary
Communication
Antisocial Behavior
Statistics
Cognitive Psychology
Biology and Life Sciences
Social Learning
Prosocial Behavior
Attitude
Age Groups
Child, Preschool
People and Places
Physical Sciences
Medicine
Cognitive Science
Population Groupings
Female
Mathematics
Research Article
Neuroscience
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8d7ef4efc5fa99cd245ea65132a7a3e5