Evaluating and Approaching a Strange Animal: Children's Trust in Informant Testimony
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This study examined 3- to 7-year-old children's reliance on informant testimony to learn about a novel animal. Sixty participants were given positive or negative information about an Australian marsupial from an informant described as a maternal figure or a zookeeper. Children were asked which informant was correct and were invited to touch the animal, which was a stuffed toy hidden in a crate. Overall, younger children endorsed the zookeeper's testimony about the animal, but touched the animal more readily when the maternal figure provided positive information. Older children endorsed the informant who provided positive information, but showed some sensitivity to zookeeper expertise. Age differences were obtained in the association between participant characteristics and informant selection and animal approach behavior.
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Boseovski & Thurman (2014) found preschoolers were more influenced by information given by a maternal figure than the older age group, displaying more avoidance when provided negative information by a maternal figure compared with the zookeeper.
“They found preschoolers were more in fl uenced by information given by a maternal fi gure than the older age group, displaying more avoidance when provided negative information by a maternal fi gure, compared with the zookeeper.”
From Specific Phobia in Young Children: Associations between the Origins of Fear and Clinical Expression of Phobia Symptoms. (2025) · cites this paper as Boseovski & Thurman, 2014
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Impact of measurement activities on young children’s epistemic and interpersonal trust
Kotaman, H. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Child Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106080 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Children’s Informant Judgments and Recall of Valenced Facts at a Science Center
Marble, K. E., Caporaso, J. S., Bettencourt, K. M., Boseovski, J. J., Pathman, T., Marcovitch, S., & Scales, M. L. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.659633 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Self-citationDo Action Speaks Louder Than Words? Young Children’s Selective Trust Decisions
Kotaman, H., & POLAT, C. (2023) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-023-05403-5 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“Therefore, it becomes essential to possess the ability to discern whom to trust as a credible source of information, given that people do not always provide accurate or reliable information (Boseovski & Thurman, 2014).”
Young children's interpersonal trust update based on promise fulfillment: Relationship counts
Shen, Y., Jia, C., Yang, K., Shen, K., Li, W., & Qin, J. (2025) · Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101801 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Is honesty always the best policy? Children's perceptions of negative performance feedback
Marble, K. E., Boseovski, J. J., & Hill, A. (2021) · Social Development · doi:10.1111/sode.12517 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Self-citationParent-Child Conversation About Negative Aspects of the Biological World
Shtulman, A., Villalobos, A., & Ziel, D. (2021) · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Children use disagreement to infer what happenedPreprint
Amemiya, J. L., Heyman, G. D., & Gerstenberg, T. (2023) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/y79sd · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Trimarchi, L., Waters, A. M., Simcock, G., & Farrell, L. J. (2025) · Journal of Child and Family Studies · doi:10.1007/s10826-025-03040-z · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“Boseovski & Thurman (2014) compared non-clinical preschool children (3 – 5 years, n = 30) with a middle childhood group (6 – 7 years, n = 30) assessing children ’ s fear following information about a novel animal, provided by two different people, either a person acting as a maternal fi gure or a…”
Can children and adults balance majority size with information quality in learning from preferences?
Gelpí, R., Whalen, A., Griffiths, T. L., Xu, F., & Buchsbaum, D. (2025) · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · doi:10.1037/xge0001724 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Trimarchi, L., Simcock, G. P., Calteaux, I. G., Waters, A. M., Ollendick, T. H., & Farrell, L. J. (2025) · Behavior Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.beth.2025.08.008 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Trusting Digital Voice Assistants: How Children Perceive Incomplete Explanations
Li, Z., Zhou, K., Li, T., & Li, J. (2025) · International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction · doi:10.1080/10447318.2025.2594145 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Gelpí, R., Otsubo, K. S., Whalen, A., & Buchsbaum, D. (2025) · Open Mind · doi:10.1162/opmi_a_00182 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
“…to learn from, preferring to learn from those who are knowledgeable, accurate, or reliable (Fusaro & Harris, 2008; Jaswal & Neely, 2006; Koenig et al., 2004; Koenig & Harris, 2005) and informants with domain-specific expertise (Aguiar et al., 2012; Boseovski & Thurman, 2014; Kushnir et al., 2013).”
Children are natural optimists – which comes with psychological pros and cons
Boseovski, J. J. (2018) · doi:10.64628/aai.nntjamef7 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationAvoiding Hasty Conclusions: Manipulating Informant Expertise to Avoid Conceptual Entrenchment
Durkin, K. L., Landrum, A. R., Savage, P., Eglian, M., & Shafto, P. (2015)
Learning in cultural contexts: children’s evaluations of learning experiences and cultural expertise
Marble, K. E. (2017) · NC Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
The role of cognition in person judgments: Introduction to the special issue
Boseovski, J. J., & Scofield, J. M. (2022) · Cognitive Development · doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2022.101187
Self-citationThe role of accuracy in children’s judgments of experts’ knowledge.
Williams, A. J. (2022) · doi:10.18297/etd/3859
Epistemic trust in digital voice assistants in conflict situations among 4- to 6-year-olds
Zhou, K., Li, Z., Zhang, X., Li, T., & Jing, L. (2025) · Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2025.101804
Li, Z., Zhou, K., Li, J., Li, T., & Li, J. (2025) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2025.108321
What one says, what many do: children's use of group behavior and testimony in social judgments
Koçyiğit, H. S., Aldan, P., & Soley, G. (2026) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2026.106286
Gossip Sharing Willingness in Primary School Children: The Role of Competition and Potential Allies
Shen, Y., Cai, Y., Liu, F., Ding, Y., & Wu, J. (2026) · Social Development · doi:10.1111/sode.70101
- Authors
- Boseovski, J. J., & Thurman, S. L.
- Affiliations
- University of North Carolina at Greensboro (US)
- University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
- Corresponding author
- Boseovski, Janet J
- Venue
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2014-03-01
- Volume
- 85
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 824-834
- ISSN
- 0009-3920 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8624
- OpenAlex
- W2005365570
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 7.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- libres.uncg.edu
- Licence
- Locations
- Child Development (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NC Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- NICHD (R03HD065931-01)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- children's trust, informant selection, expertise, mother figure, zookeepers, age differences, social learning
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Animals, Animals, Wild, Attitude, Psychology, Child, Child, Preschool, Choice Behavior, Female, Humans, Infant, Interpersonal Relations, Judgment, Male, Marsupialia, Disclosure, Trust
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