| Popis: |
Young children often overestimate their knowledge; they think they know more than they actually do. Most prior work attributes children’s overconfidence to cognitive factors. We suggest that a comprehensive account of children’s overconfidence needs to additionally consider the role of social factors. Specifically, we propose that children are more likely to exhibit overconfidence when they believe that this will help them create a positive reputation. If overconfidence is indeed partly socially mediated, children who grow up in environments where confidence is highly valued might exhibit higher levels of overconfidence, because this would help them enhance their personal reputation. The first goal of the current study is to start examining this idea by investigating possible cross-cultural differences regarding overconfidence. In western, individualistic cultures, like the US, confidence is often seen as a “key to success”, while more collectivist cultures, like Kenya, often emphasize modesty and humility more. To investigate whether these possible cross-cultural differences have an effect on children’s overconfidence, we test 4- to 7-year-old children from one more individualist culture (San Francisco Bay Area, US) and one more collectivist culture (Kikuyu children in Laikipia county, Kenya) in a perceptual judgment paradigm. Children will be asked to make judgments about whether there are more marbles of color 1 or more marbles of color 2 in a cup (multiple trials with varying levels of difficulty). We measure children’s certainty judgments via a 3-point-scale, and identify overconfidence by relating children’s average accuracy to their average certainty (across all test trials). We are interested in whether there are age and / or cultural differences regarding the level of overconfidence that children exhibit in this task. The second goal of the current study is to investigate the relation between explicit verbal (as measured via the three-point-confidence scale) and implicit behavioral measures of overconfidence. After making their initial judgment about whether there are more marbles of color 1 or color 2, children have the option to take a second look at the marbles (i.e., to double-check), and, if necessary, change their initial judgment. We are interested to see whether children who are more overconfident on the explicit measure are less likely to double-check, and therefore less likely to improve the accuracy of their beliefs. |
