Trusting Wisely? Developmental Changes in How Children Learn and Adapt to Partner Trustworthiness.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Social Cognition
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Selective trust is vital for social navigation, balancing potential benefits against exploitation risks.
• Understanding how children develop trust expectations and adjust decisions based on experience is crucial for social development research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how children's trust expectations and experienced trustworthiness influence their trust decisions.
• To examine children's learning processes regarding trustworthiness and behavioral adjustments using computational modeling.

Main Methods:

• A child-friendly repeated Trust Game was administered to 96 children aged 6-11.
• Computational modeling, specifically a reinforcement learning model, was used to analyze trust behaviors and learning patterns.
• Regression analyses were performed to identify factors influencing trust decisions.

Main Results:

• Children shared more resources with trustworthy partners than untrustworthy ones.
• Older children generally shared more than younger children, though differentiation varied.
• Computational models indicated that children adjusted their trust behaviors over time, becoming less responsive as initial impressions solidified.

Conclusions:

• Children aged 6-11 can differentiate trustworthy from untrustworthy partners through experience.
• Reinforcement learning models effectively capture age-related differences in updating trust expectations.
• Computational modeling offers valuable insights into the development of economic trust behaviors in children.