Preschoolers sometimes seek help from socially engaged informants over competent ones

• Published in: Cognitive development 2018-10, Vol.48, p.19-31
• Main Authors: Rowles, Sydney P., Mills, Candice M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive development; Competence; Help-seeking; Selective trust; Social engagement
• ISSN: 0885-2014; 1879-226X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2018.06.006

•Examined 4- to 5-year-old children’s selective help-seeking while problem solving.•Children could seek help from adults who varied in competence and social engagement.•Overall, children were more likely to seek help from the engaged adults.•Individual differences were present in children’s help-seeking behavior.•Future research should examine how children’s goals affect their selective trust. The current studies examine whether children can selectively seek help from more competent others to solve simple problems. Across two experiments, 4- and 5-year-old children watched two adults demonstrate using a toy: one adult appeared competent but was socially unengaged, while the other appeared incompetent but was socially engaged. Children were then able to seek help from the adults while working with their own problem-solving toys. In Experiment 1, children appeared to seek help indiscriminately between the two adults. In Experiment 2, which had a more salient competence cue, children showed a statistically significant preference for questioning the socially engaged informant. For both experiments, children were able to remember post-test which adult demonstrated which characteristic, though they did not make strong inferences regarding future behaviors. This research demonstrates that preschool-aged children sometimes prefer to seek help from socially engaged sources, even if those sources may not be competent.