artículo científico
The boss is always right: Preschoolers endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate
Fecha
2016-12Registro en:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096516301321
0022-0965
10.1016/j.jecp.2016.08.007
Autor
Bernard, Stéphane
Castelain, Thomas
Mercier, Hugo
Kaufmann, Laurence
Van der Henst, Jean-Baptiste
Clément, Fabrice
Institución
Resumen
Recent research has shown that young children rely on social cues to evaluate testimony. For instance, they prefer to endorse testimony provided by a consensual group than by a single dissenter. Given that dominance is pervasive in children’s social environment, it can be hypothesized that children also use dominance
relations in their selection of testimony. To test this hypothesis, a dominance asymmetry was induced between two characters either by having one repeatedly win in physical contests (physical power; Experiment 1) or by having one repeatedly impose her goals on the other (decisional power; Experiment 2). In two subsequent testimony tasks, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly tended to endorse the testimony of the dominant over that of the subordinate. These results suggest that preschoolers take dominance into account when evaluating testimony. In conclusion, we discuss
two potential explanations for these findings.