How Children Revise their Beliefs in Light of Reasons

Here we investigate how reason-responsiveness – the ability to respond appropriately to reasons provided in discourse – develops in young children. In Study 1 (N=58, 26 girls), 4- and 5- , but not 3-year-old children, differentiated good from bad reasons. In Study 2 (N=131, 64 girls), 4- and 5-year-old children considered both the strength of evidence for their initial belief and the quality of the reasons for the alternative view provided by a disagreeing social partner when deciding whether to change their minds. Study 3 (N=80, 42 girls, pre-registered) shows that 4- and 5-year-old children also consider meta-reasons (reasons about reasons) in their belief revision. These results suggest that by age 4, children possess key critical thinking capacities for participating and exchanging reasons in public discourse.