Who Do Children Believe? Exploring Testimonial Injustice Toward Characters with Disabilities

Young children develop stereotypes and attitudes about others early in life, yet little research has examined how they evaluate knowledge-related exchanges involving individuals with disabilities—a process that may indicate early forms of testimonial injustice. This study investigated whether children (ages 5 – 7) are more likely to believe speakers with or without sensory and physical disabilities, whether the type of statement made by a speaker influences children’s belief preferences, and whether children anticipate epistemic bias from non-disabled listeners. A predominately White sample of sixty-four children viewed videos featuring two characters—one disabled and one non-disabled—making statements, and were asked to select which character they believed. Children showed no overall belief preference, but when characters made physical or action-related statements, they were significantly more likely to believe non-disabled characters. Additionally, children predicted significantly more often that non-disabled listeners would believe non-disabled speakers. These findings indicate that even in early childhood, children’s epistemic evaluations for themselves and other listeners are shaped by disability and statement type, highlighting the early emergence of epistemic biases and the need to consider disability in further research.