Children presume confident informants will be accurate (until proven otherwise)

Abstract

Past research has demonstrated that children prefer to learn from confident rather than hesitant informants. It is frequently assumed that they do so because they believe confidence to predict a person's knowledge and future accuracy; however, this assumption has not previously been tested. The present investigation therefore explored how 3- to 8-year-old children interpret informant confidence. Study 1 (N = 84) aimed to address whether informant confidence is interpreted as an indicator of knowledge. Study 2 (N = 87) explored how children's interpretation changes with conflicting informant credibility cues. Findings demonstrate that school-aged children, but not preschoolers, expect correct statements from confident individuals and incorrect statements from hesitant informants. Additionally, school-age children attribute word knowledge to a previously confident informant. When accuracy conflicts with confidence, accuracy drives 3- to 8-year-old children's knowledge attributions. This investigation builds on previous research and suggests that, by age 5 or 6, children do make individual epistemic inferences based on informant confidence.