Do Action Speaks Louder Than Words? Young Children’s Selective Trust Decisions

The purpose of the study is to examine young children’s (4- to 8-year-old) selective trust decisions in two different data sets; one was for interpersonal trust decision and the other was for epistemic trust decision. Children encountered with two assistants one provided them testimony about who trustworthy they are and the other assistant displayed trustworthy action while child was witnessing. Children in interpersonal trust study responded to three interpersonal trust questions. Children in epistemic trust study responded three ask questions. Findings showed that for interpersonal and epistemic trust decision young children did not differentiate between testimony and action. This tendency did not change with age and children’s socio-economic status. The study pointed that young children in Şanlıurfa did not consider action as a more valuable evidence for trustworthiness compared to testimony.