Children’s expectations about the stability of others' knowledge and preference states

Abstract

It is a crucial ability to predict others’ psychological states across time and contexts. Focusing on cultural inventions such as songs and stories, we contrasted children’s attributions of stability with others’ knowledge and preference states across time and space and whether these attributions change as a function of children’s familiarity with the known/liked items. Children (91 4-year-olds and 97 6-year-olds) were introduced to characters who knew or liked a song, a story, a game and a dance that were either novel or familiar. Children were asked whether the characters would still know/like these when they move to another city or when they grow up to be an adult. Both age groups expected these attributes to be more durable in the moving scenario compared with the growingup scenario, but this trend became more robust with age. Whereas overall children did not judge knowledge as more durable than preferences, children found knowledge to be more enduring with age. The 6-year-olds’ stability attributions also increased when known/-liked items were familiar. These results suggest that, across the preschool years, children become more nuanced in their predictions about the future forms of knowledge and preference states.