Are peers better informants? The role of testimony content and positivity in children's selective trust

When evaluating sources of information, children focus on the question "Whom to trust?". Especially, the information preschoolers obtain from adults and their peers shapes their learning processes. Although the selectivity in children's trust decisions towards peers and adults is addressed in the literature, there is limited research on these decisions in contexts where contradictory testimonies are provided. The present study examined the factors affecting 5-year-old children's (N = 66) trust decisions toward peers and adults by detailing the content of the testimonies. In the study, children were presented with informational and emotional testimonies in toy (child-relevant) and household item (adult-relevant) domains, by peers and adults, which contradicted in terms of valence (i.e., positive vs. negative). Then, they were asked which testimonies of peers or adults they trusted. Additionally, without hearing any testimony from the informants, it was evaluated to whom children would like to direct questions about toys and household items. According to the results, the positivity of the testimony significantly affected children's trust decisions. The trust in peer informants was higher in the peer positive-adult negative testimony condition compared to the opposite condition (peer negative-adult positive). Children were also more likely to ask peers to find out if a toy was fun, and adults to find out how a household item worked. Overall, the findings of the study indicated that children trust peers rather than adults under certain conditions and that testimony-related factors shape children's selective social learning strategies.