Knowing better: the role of prior knowledge and culture in trust in testimony

This article examined the ability of young children to adapt their trust in testimony in relation to the strength of their prior knowledge across 2 cultures and 2 age groups. Kindergartners and second graders in the United States and Hong Kong (N = 128) viewed pictures of objects and made category judgments about each object: first, in the presence of a teacher who provided labels that conflicted with their prior knowledge, and again, in a pedagogical scenario, when told they were passing the information on to younger learners in the teacher's absence. Results showed that children endorsed more conflicting labels when they had weak (as opposed to strong) prior knowledge about the objects. This effect of knowledge strength was robust across cultures and stronger in the older children. Surprisingly, relative to their Chinese peers, American kindergartners were more willing to endorse conflicting labels when they had strong prior knowledge about the objects. Findings are discussed with respect to the ways in which children are socialized to learn from others across the early primary school years in these 2 very different cultures.