The effect of norm exceptions on children's epistemic trustand stereotype formation

Previous research indicates that children acquire information about novel individuals through testimonies and social encounters. The present study investigated the impact of exceptional group members on children's evaluations in informants who give testimony about a group. Children aged 6-to-7 (N = 135) were assigned to either ingroup or outgroup informant conditions based on minimal group assignment. Informants provided testimony about a novel group. Subsequently, half of the children were exposed to a group whose members largely contradicted the initial testimony (three-fourths of members), while the other half encountered a group largely confirmed by the testimony (three-fourths of members). Children's willingness to learn about other examples after encountering the first member was assessed. They were then asked to evaluate the accuracy of the initial testimony and two additional testimonies about a different novel group and object. Results showed that children exhibited greater willingness to seek evidence when initial examples contradicted rather than confirmed the testimony. Overall, children were more likely to evaluate informants' testimony as true when they were ingroups compared to when they were outgroups, and when the members they encountered were mostly confirmatory rather than contradictory. Additionally, an interaction effect was observed, with the effect of informant group identity being more pronounced in confirmatory conditions. Finally, children's trust in initial testimony predicted their epistemic trust in learning about a novel group but not about a novel object. To sum up, these findings illustrate how the dynamics of group affiliation and sample distributions influence children's social learning and epistemic trust processes.