A new research has examined those kids as young as five become cautious of information which is provided by people who make overly-confident claims.
The researchers at Concordia University showed their subjects short videos of two adults talking about familiar animals where the speakers would either make true statements about the animal in a hesitant voice or make false statements about the animal in a confident voice.
The kids were then shown videos of the same two adults speaking about strange animals. The previously confident speaker would state facts with confidence, and the previously hesitant speaker remained hesitant while stating different facts. The participants were then asked whom they believed.
In children closer to the age of four, it was a 50/50 split and they were as likely to believe the confident liar as the hesitant truth-teller but as they neared the age of five, participants were more likely to believe the previously accurate but hesitant individual, suggesting a year can make a big difference in terms of a child's evolution in the critical consumption of information.
The study is published in journal PLOS One.
