Suchergebnisse

The present study explored implicit and explicit honesty perceptions of White and Black children and whether these perceptions predicted legal decisions in a child abuse case. Participants consisted of 186 younger and 189 older adults from the online Prolific participant pool. Implicit racial bias was measured via a modified Implicit Association Test and explicit perceptions through self-reports. Participants read a simulated legal case where either a Black or White child alleged physical abuse against their sports coach, and they rated the honesty of the child's testimony and rendered a verdict. Participants were implicitly biased to associate honesty with White children over Black children, and this bias was stronger among older adults. In the legal vignette, for participants who read about a Black child victim, greater implicit racial bias predicted less trust in the child's testimony and a lower likelihood of convicting the coach of abusing the child. In contrast to their implicit bias, participants self-reported Black children as being more honest than White children, suggesting a divergence in racial attitudes across implicit and explicit measures. Implications for child abuse victims are discussed.

AbstractChildren are frequently given rules and permissions that contrast their self‐interest, resulting in cheating behavior. The present study examined whether a verbalized commitment without the word 'promise' could reduce cheating rates in young children and whether this technique would be significantly more effective than a simple affirmation to a request not to cheat. Ninety‐nine 3‐to‐5‐year‐olds were randomly assigned to one of three obligation conditions: control, simple 'okay', or a verbalized commitment condition. All children played a guessing game in which the experimenter left the room on the final trial and children were instructed not to peek at the toy in the experimenter's absence. Children were asked to agree to the request not to peek (simple 'okay' condition), to verbally state that they would not peek (verbalized commitment condition), or were just instructed not to peek (control condition). The verbalized commitment condition significantly reduced cheating rates compared to the other conditions, regardless of age. Furthermore, among those who cheated, children in the verbalized commitment condition took significantly longer to peek compared to the other conditions. Results suggest that a verbal commitment without the word 'promise' can be an effective method to reduce young children's cheating behavior.