Date on Senior Honors Thesis
12-2014
Document Type
Senior Honors Thesis
Department
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Degree Program
College of Arts and Sciences
Author's Keywords
Social cognition; Epistemic trust; Social learning; Helpfulness; Evaluating informants
Abstract
How do children consider helpfulness, specifically effort and utility, when evaluating potential informants? We tested preschoolers on three conditions, asking them to choose between a character high in both effort and utility and a character who acted with either 1) low effort and high utility, 2) high effort and low utility, or 3) low effort and no utility (removed from social contexts). The opposing characters provided conflicting information when labeling novel objects, and participants were asked which label they endorsed. They were then asked to choose which character was the more helpful, which worked harder, and which was nicer. We found trends toward endorsing words from the helpful over no social context character. Participants chose the helpful character as more helpful and hardworking compared to the low utility character, and as working harder compared to the no social context character. These trends indicate that children focus on utility and social contribution over effort when evaluating the helpfulness of a potential informant.
Recommended Citation
McCarty, Danielle, "Is it the thought that counts? : investigating children's understanding of helpfulness, effort, and utility." (2014). College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses. Paper 42.
http://doi.org/10.18297/honors/42
