We tested whether 3- and 4-year-olds (N = 88) can deduce individuals’ credibility exclusively from situational cues such as game rules that reward competitive or cooperative behavior—and whether children’s inferences are predicted by their executive function (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) skills. When presented with the game rules, children endorsed a partner’s claims more often if the rules incentivized cooperation between participants and partners (e.g., by giving them prizes when trusting each other) versus when the rules incentivized deception (e.g., by giving prizes to partners who tricked the children). Notably, children’s appropriate responses to partners’ claims increased as their EF skills improved regardless of whether the rules supported trust or skepticism. ToM was not related to children’s rule-based selectivity. Preschoolers’ ability to make inferences based on cooperative versus competitive reward rules to determine whether the children’s partner can be trusted is key to learning from individuals whose reputation or past behavior is completely unknown. In addition, findings of associations between EF and vigilance about others’ claims contribute to the epistemological debate of whether people start in life as credulous learners.

我们测试了 3 岁和 4 岁儿童（N = 88) 可以完全从诸如奖励竞争或合作行为的游戏规则之类的情境线索推断个人的可信度，以及儿童的推理是否由他们的执行功能 (EF) 和心理理论 (ToM) 技能预测。当看到游戏规则时，如果规则鼓励参与者和合作伙伴之间的合作（例如，在相互信任时给他们奖品），而不是当规则鼓励欺骗（例如，通过给不信任的合作伙伴奖品）时，儿童会更频繁地支持合作伙伴的主张。骗过孩子）。值得注意的是，无论规则是支持信任还是怀疑，孩子们对伴侣要求的适当反应都会随着他们的 EF 技能的提高而增加。ToM 与儿童基于规则的选择性无关。学龄前儿童根据合作与竞争奖励规则进行推断以确定孩子的伴侣是否值得信任的能力是向声誉或过去行为完全未知的个人学习的关键。此外，EF 与对他人主张的警惕性之间关联的发现有助于人们在生活中是否从轻信的学习者开始的认识论辩论。