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Three- and Four-Year-Old Children’s Ability to Infer True Information from Others' Lies

Abstract

The present study investigated three- and four-year-old children's ability to infer true information based on others' lies. In Study 1, children were asked to guess the true location of a candy after listening to a liar puppet's statement about the candy's location. Three-year old children merely trusted the statement of the liar puppet, and four-year old children did not show any systematic pattern. In Study 2, several changes were made. First, the experimenter showed the children the true location of the candy after the first trial and thus children witnessed that the liar puppet's statement about the candy’s location was false. Second, the puppet's motivation to deceive the child was clarified. In study 2, children's overall performance improved. Especially, both three- and four- year-old children performed better at the second trial. This research adds to the evidence on Korean children's understanding of lying and their ability to infer truth based on others' lies. This research has implications for further cross-cultural research on the development of children's ability to understand the relationship between others' traits and behaviors.

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Submission Date
2010-07-13
Revised Date
2010-08-10
Accepted Date
2010-08-11

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