1. Early false-belief understanding in traditional non-Western societies.
- Author
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Barrett HC, Broesch T, Scott RM, He Z, Baillargeon R, Wu D, Bolz M, Henrich J, Setoh P, Wang J, and Laurence S
- Subjects
- Animals, Child, Child, Preschool, China, Ecuador, Female, Fiji, Humans, Infant, Male, Rural Population, Child Development, Comprehension, Concept Formation, Cross-Cultural Comparison
- Abstract
The psychological capacity to recognize that others may hold and act on false beliefs has been proposed to reflect an evolved, species-typical adaptation for social reasoning in humans; however, controversy surrounds the developmental timing and universality of this trait. Cross-cultural studies using elicited-response tasks indicate that the age at which children begin to understand false beliefs ranges from 4 to 7 years across societies, whereas studies using spontaneous-response tasks with Western children indicate that false-belief understanding emerges much earlier, consistent with the hypothesis that false-belief understanding is a psychological adaptation that is universally present in early childhood. To evaluate this hypothesis, we used three spontaneous-response tasks that have revealed early false-belief understanding in the West to test young children in three traditional, non-Western societies: Salar (China), Shuar/Colono (Ecuador) and Yasawan (Fiji). Results were comparable with those from the West, supporting the hypothesis that false-belief understanding reflects an adaptation that is universally present early in development.
- Published
- 2013
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