The Role of Expertise Judgments in Children's Social Learning

Previous research has examined how children judge sources of information (Corriveau & Harris, 2009; Corriveau, Pickard, & Harris, 2010; Koenig & Harris, 2005), but no studies have attempted to increase or decrease a children’s trust in informants, measure learning from that informant, and analyze how that learning persists over time. The current study examined if children’s trust in informants can be manipulated, and how this trust relates to learning STEM concepts from a video of the character in question. Fifty-seven 3- to 6-year-olds were visited in their preschool classrooms at 3 different time points. Children watched a video of Sid from Sid the Science Kid solving a problem. After the video, children were tasked with solving an analogically-similar problem. Children were tested for verbal reasoning, concept formation, visual matching, executive function, character realism, identification with the character, theory of mind, and character trust (belief in Sid’s expertise in problem-solving). Presenting Sid to the participants as either clever or clumsy did not affect character trust or learning. Children’s belief in Sid’s expertise also did not affect learning; however, levels of learning remained stable over time. Identification with Sid may play a role in how children viewed Sid and learned from him.