ABSTRACT

In the Iranian culture, do children prefer to trust same-gender adults for learning new information? A sample of 106 three and half- to seven-year-old preschool children participated in two tasks. The testimony task was designed to set the prior accuracy of informants against their gender. To establish prior accuracy, children watched a man and woman label neutral objects. Children then decided (a) who to ask about naming unfamiliar objects, (b) whose label for each unfamiliar object is more accurate, and (c) who was better in responding to questions. Children also completed measures of personal sex-typing and stereotyped attitudes towards others. During the testimony task, children responded based on prior informant accuracy while there was only one reliable informant (same-gender or other-gender). The results showed that when both adults were the same in reliability or unreliability, children were above chance in favouring the same-gender informant for ask and choice questions. Notably, in our study, the girls with higher scores in the personal sex-typing measure were more likely to trust the man’s information even when the man had been unreliable or equal to the woman in reliability in the previous phase. However, the boys did not demonstrate such behaviour. Findings are discussed from the perspective of Iranian culture.

摘要

在伊朗文化中，孩子们是否更愿意信任同性成年人来学习新信息？106 名三岁半至七岁学龄前儿童的样本参与了两项任务。证词任务旨在根据线人的性别确定线人的先验准确性。为了确定事先的准确性，孩子们观看了一个男人和一个女人给中性物体贴上标签。然后，孩子们决定 (a) 询问谁来命名不熟悉的物体，(b) 谁对每个不熟悉的物体的标签更准确，以及 (c) 谁更善于回答问题。孩子们还完成了个人性别类型和对他人刻板态度的测量。在证词任务期间，儿童根据先前线人的准确性做出反应，而只有一名可靠的线人（同性或异性）。结果表明，当两个成年人的可靠性或不可靠性相同时，儿童在提问和选择问题时更倾向于选择同性别的信息提供者。值得注意的是，在我们的研究中，在个人性别打字测试中得分较高的女孩更有可能相信男人的信息，即使男人在前一阶段的可靠性方面不可靠或与女人不相上下。然而，男孩们并没有表现出这种行为。从伊朗文化的角度讨论了调查结果。在个人性别打字测试中得分较高的女孩更有可能相信男人的信息，即使男人在前一阶段不可靠或与女人的可靠性相当。然而，男孩们并没有表现出这种行为。从伊朗文化的角度讨论了调查结果。在个人性别打字测试中得分较高的女孩更有可能相信男人的信息，即使男人在前一阶段不可靠或与女人的可靠性相当。然而，男孩们并没有表现出这种行为。从伊朗文化的角度讨论了调查结果。