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Trusting the vigilant: How children value others' vigilance against deception
Diana Mazzarella1, Marie Aguirre1, Thomas Castelain2
1Cognitive Science Centre, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Acta Psychologica
|March 15, 2026
Summary
Children develop vigilance against misinformation as they age. From age four, they can assess an informant
Area of Science:
- Cognitive development
- Social cognition
- Information processing
Background:
- Humans depend on communicated information, but face risks from misinformation.
- Managing misinformation requires vigilance against dishonest informants and monitoring others' vigilance, especially in social chains.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate children's first-order vigilance towards dishonesty.
- To examine children's second-order vigilance: monitoring others' vigilance and making trust decisions.
Main Methods:
- Children aged 4-7 completed tasks assessing first-order vigilance towards dishonest informants.
- A novel second-order vigilance paradigm measured trust in informants based on their past vigilance or gullibility.
Main Results:
- Children's first-order vigilance improves from ages 4-7.
- Trust is modulated by informant characteristics: less trust for liars/antisocial informants than 'mean' ones.
- From 4-5 years, children trust informants who previously showed vigilance over those showing gullibility.
Conclusions:
- Children develop sensitivity to the social history of information.
- Second-order vigilance mechanisms play a role in mitigating misinformation transmission risks.
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