Cooperation turns preschoolers into flexible perspective takers

Two experiments were carried out to determine if brief priming for cooperation or competition affects 4-year-old children’s visual perspective taking. In each experiment, children were tested for their flexibility to take different perspectives between themselves and an adult who cooperated with or competed against them earlier in a fishing game. The results of Experiment 1 (N = 48) showed that children who cooperated with, compared to those who competed against, an adult were more capable of comprehending perspectives that were different from their own. The results of Experiment 2 (N = 72) further clarified that children still had some difficulty in understanding others’ perspectives at the baseline. Further, compared to the baseline, cooperation, but not competition, significantly improved their flexibility in understanding others’ perspectives. The current findings extend knowledge about the development of high-level perspective taking and how it is correlated with different types of social interaction, especially cooperation.