Children are often third-party observers of conversations between informants and receivers. Although 5- and 6-year-olds can identify and reject informants’ false testimony, it remains unclear whether they expect others to do the same. Accurately assessing others’ impressions of informants and their testimony in a conversational setting is essential for children’s navigation of the social world. Using a novel second-order lie detection task, the current study examined whether 4- to 7-year-olds ( = 74; = 69 months) take receivers’ epistemic states into account when predicting whether a receiver would think an informant is truthful or deceptive. We pitted children’s firsthand observations of reality against informants’ false testimony while manipulating receivers’ perceptual access to a sticker-hiding event. Results showed that when the receiver had perceptual access and was knowledgeable, children predicted that the receiver would think the informant is lying. Critically, when the receiver lacked perceptual access and was ignorant, children were significantly more likely to predict that the receiver would think the informant is telling the truth. Second-order theory of mind and executive function strengthened this effect. Findings are interpreted using a dual-process framework and provide new insights into children’s understanding of others’ selective trust and susceptibility to deception.

中文翻译：

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通过他人的眼睛辨别谎言：儿童使用感知访问线索来评估听众对线人欺骗的信念

儿童通常是线人与接受者之间对话的第三方观察者。尽管 5 岁和 6 岁的孩子可以识别并拒绝线人的虚假证言，但尚不清楚他们是否期望其他人也这样做。准确评估他人对线人的印象及其在对话环境中的证词对于儿童在社交世界中的导航至关重要。当前的研究使用新颖的二阶测谎任务，检查 4 至 7 岁的儿童（= 74；= 69 个月）在预测接收者是否认为线人是真实的或具有欺骗性。我们将儿童对现实的第一手观察与线人的虚假证词进行比较，同时操纵接收者对贴纸隐藏事件的感知。结果表明，当接收者具有感知能力并且知识渊博时，儿童预测接收者会认为线人在撒谎。至关重要的是，当接收者缺乏感知能力并且无知时，孩子们更有可能预测接收者会认为线人说的是实话。心智二阶理论和执行功能强化了这种效果。使用双过程框架对研究结果进行解释，并为儿童如何理解他人的选择性信任和对欺骗的敏感性提供新的见解。