Who to ask? Children's partner choice reveals sensitivity to reputational incentives

In navigating social relationships, children need to understand not only that peers are motivated to manage their reputations but also how these reputational incentives shape behavior. Across three nonpreregistered experiments, we explored whether children (aged 3-7; M = 67 months; N = 168) strategically direct their requests for resources to individuals whose reputations would most benefit from sharing. In Experiment 1, 4- to 7-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, preferentially requested stickers from a puppet who believed he was being filmed over one who believed the camera was off. In Experiment 2, only 6- and 7-year-olds reversed this preference when sharing would be evaluated negatively. Similarly, in Experiment 3, only 6- and 7-year-olds strategically directed requests toward individuals observed by friends rather than by strangers. Together, these findings suggest a developmental shift from general sensitivity to observation to a more flexible understanding of how specific audiences shape others' behavior across contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).