Children's Trait Inference and Partner Choice in a Cooperative Game
A series of experiments conducted in Central Europe (Hungary, Austria) and East Asia (Japan) probed whether 5- to 10-year-old children (n = 436, 213 female) and adults (n = 71, 43 female; all data collected between July 2020 and May 2023) would infer traits and choose partners accordingly, in a novel touchscreen game. The participants observed third-party actions and interactions of animated agents whose behavior varied in prosociality and skill, and subsequently selected whom to play with in potentially cooperative endeavors. Overall, the results indicate (1) that trait inference may not naturally follow from action understanding but relies on learning and experimental task framing, and (2) that by 7 years of age, children begin to capitalize on such inferences in partner choice.
Authors
- Maayan Stavans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5681-8114)
- Laura Schlingloff (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7512-2617)
- Kazuhide Hashiya (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3497-3460)
- Barbu Revencu
- Gergely Csibra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7044-3056)
- Hiromi Kobayashi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0138-5363)
Institutions
- Kyushu University (JP)
- Inserm (FR)
- Central European University (AT)
- Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (FR)
- Université Paris-Saclay (FR)
- CEA Paris-Saclay (FR)
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab (FR)
- Technical University of Munich (DE)
- Birkbeck, University of London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Child Development
- Published
- 2025-04-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14247
- Primary Topic
- Child and Animal Learning Development
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- Central European University
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
- H2020 European Research Council