When the internet is wrong: Children's trust in an inaccurate internet or human source

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Development
• Information Science
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Children's ability to assess informant accuracy is crucial for learning.
• Previous research indicates children can evaluate information based on source reliability.
• Understanding how children judge digital vs. in-person information sources is increasingly important.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how Chinese kindergarteners and second-graders (ages 5-8) judge scientific information from the internet and teachers.
• To determine if a source's history of inaccuracy influences children's judgments of information credibility.

Main Methods:

• Participants included 46 kindergarteners (5-6 years) and 48 second-graders (7-8 years).
• Children were presented with scientific information from either the internet or a teacher.
• The study manipulated the historical accuracy of these sources to observe children's trust levels.

Main Results:

• Initially, children showed no preference between internet and teacher sources without accuracy information.
• After the internet provided inaccurate information, both age groups reduced trust in it.
• When the teacher was consistently inaccurate, children also decreased their reliance on the teacher's statements.

Conclusions:

• Children aged 5-8 years actively consider an information source's history of inaccuracy.
• This developmental capacity to evaluate source credibility extends to both digital and human informants.
• Findings highlight children's developing critical evaluation skills regarding scientific information sources.