CONTAMINATION IN REASONING ABOUT FALSE BELIEF - AN INSTANCE OF REALIST BIAS IN ADULTS BUT NOT CHILDREN

Children aged around 5 and 9 years and adults were presented with stor ies and videos about a protagonist who heard a message purporting to p rovide factual information. Observing subjects knew whether the messag e was true or false. In some cases, this message contradicted the list ener's existing belief based on what he or she had seen previously. Su bjects judged whether the listener would believe or disbelieve the mes sage. Child subjects frequently judged that a contradicting message wo uld be disbelieved, irrespective of whether they (the child subjects) knew it to be true or false. In contrast, adult subjects made judgemen ts that were contaminated by their own privileged knowledge of the tru th. For three different scenarios, adult subjects judged more frequent ly that the message would be believed if they (but not the listener pr otagonist) knew it to be true, than if they thought it was false.