The boss is always right: Preschooler endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate

S Bernard , T Castelain , Hugo Mercier , J-B van Der Henst (1) , L Kaufmann , F Clément

1 L2C2 - Institut des Sciences cognitives Marc Jeannerod - Laboratoire sur le langage, le cerveau et la cognition

Recent research has shown that young children rely on social cues to evaluate testimony. For instance, they prefer to endorse testi- mony provided by a consensual group than by a single dissenter. Given that dominance is pervasive in children’s social environ- ment, it can be hypothesized that children also use dominance relations in their selection of testimony. To test this hypothesis, a dominance asymmetry was induced between two characters either by having one repeatedly win in physical contests (physical power; Experiment 1) or by having one repeatedly impose her goals on the other (decisional power; Experiment 2). In two subsequent testi- mony tasks, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly tended to endorse the testimony of the dominant over that of the subordi- nate. These results suggest that preschoolers take dominance into account when evaluating testimony. In conclusion, we discuss two potential explanations for these findings

Domaines: Sciences cognitives

S Bernard, T Castelain, Hugo Mercier, J-B van Der Henst, L Kaufmann, et al.. The boss is always right: Preschooler endorse the testimony of a dominant over that of a subordinate. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2016. ⟨hal-01400548⟩