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Journal Article Summary

Introduction

Trust is an essential aspect of human interaction, both personal and societal. Recognizing who can be trusted under what conditions is an essential developmental task in children. Li et al. (2020) conducted a field study that sought to address this gap by investigating whether preschoolers can be misled by adult strangers who provide accurate or inaccurate information about them. Therefore, this study provided real-world evidence of selective trust among early childhood children. This evidence has significant ramifications for understanding child abduction vulnerabilities as well as creating educational programs designed to ensure their safety.

Method

This study assessed preschool children's personal-safety awareness for use in a street-smartness training program. 120 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old from two Chinese preschools were engaged in the study as participants for the experiment; they were divided into two age groups (3–4-year-olds and 5–6-year-olds) before being tested individually on two factors (age group (3-4 vs 5–6-year-olds) and information accuracy. After being left alone in an outdoor play area, one or more confederates approached each child individually before making person-descriptive statements that were either all correct or all incorrect before asking a participant to leave with them; their responses were recorded.

Results

Overall, the results of this study revealed a statistically significant impact of information accuracy on response-to-suggestion data for 5- to 6-year-olds but not 3- to 4-year-olds. At 5- to 6-year-old level, more children opted out with the confederate when she provided accurate information versus inaccurate. Follow-up analyses revealed that age effects were only significant when confederates provided inaccurate information; 3- to 4-year-olds were more likely to leave with her than 5- to 6-year-olds, and hesitation times were significantly influenced by information accuracy; children were more reluctant to leave with the confederate when her information had been incorrect, regardless of age group.

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