Preschoolers mistrust ignorant and inaccurate speakers

Being able to evaluate the accuracy of an informant is essential to communication. Three experiments exploredpreschoolers’ (N5119) understanding that, in cases of conflict, information from reliable informants is preferableto information from unreliable informants. In Experiment 1, children were presented with previouslyaccurate and inaccurate informants who presented conflicting names for novel objects. 4-year-olds but not 3-year-olds predicted whether an informant would be accurate in the future, sought, and endorsed informationfrom the accurate over the inaccurate informant. In Experiment 2, both age groups displayed trust in knowledgeableover ignorant speakers. In Experiment 3, children extended selective trust when learning both verbaland nonverbal information. These experiments demonstrate that preschoolers have a key strategy for assessingthe reliability of information.