The Roles of Intuition and Informants’ Expertise in Children's Epistemic Trust

2014/11/26 by Jonathan D Lane, Jonathan D. Lane, Paul L Harris +1 · 85 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Child and Animal Learning Development #Cognitive science #Counterintuitive #Developmental psychology #Educational Strategies and Epistemologies #Epistemology #Intuition #Misinformation and Its Impacts #Psychology #Social psychology

paper · open access · doi:10.1111/cdev.12324

published in Child Development 86(3), 919-926 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2014/11/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

This study examined how children's intuitions and informants' expertise influence children's trust in informants' claims. Three- to 8-year-olds (N = 192) watched videos in which experts (animal/biology experts or artifact/physics experts) made either intuitively plausible or counterintuitive claims about obscure animals or artifacts. Claims fell either within or beyond experts' domains of expertise. Children of all ages were more trusting of claims made by informants with relevant, as opposed to irrelevant, expertise. Children also showed greater acceptance of intuitive rather than counterintuitive claims, a differentiation that increased with age as they developed firmer intuitions about what can ordinarily happen. In summary, children's trust in testimony depends on whether informants have the relevant expertise as well as on children's own developing intuitions.

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