Poster #242 - What Does Mickey Mouse Know?: Children’s Trust in a Familiar Character’s Statements About Food

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Children encounter messages about food from familiar characters in media and advertising, but also from knowledgeable adults like parents and teachers. This study looks at whether children show greater trust in a familiar character or a food expert when hearing statements about food and non-food objects. Because younger children are less likely to understand expertise (e.g., Lutz and Keil, 2002) and more likely to prioritize familiarity (e.g., Corriveau and Harris, 2009), we hypothesized that children’s trust in a food expert’s objective and subjective statements about food items over a familiar character’s statements would be greater in older children than younger children.
In Experiment 1, children ages 3-5 (n=58) chose their favorite familiar character and were introduced to a food expert. Then children heard the familiar character and expert provide conflicting labels for 5 unfamiliar fruits and 5 unfamiliar tools, and children were asked to endorse one label. A 2(item type) x 3(age) MANOVA showed a main effect of item type, F(1, 55)=5.078, p =.028, η2=.085, where children endorsed the character’s labels for tools more often than for fruit (see Figure 1). There was no significant main effect of age or interaction. In addition, children endorsed the character’s statements more often than chance for both types of items, ts(57) 2.158, ps .035. This suggests that preschoolers trust familiar characters more than experts when evaluating objective statements about food and non-food items.
In Experiment 2, children ages 4 and 5 (n=40) chose a character and were introduced to the same expert as in Experiment 1. The procedure for the objective trials was the same except items were identified as tools or fruit to emphasize the connection to the expert. Children then completed a second set of 4 trials involving subjective information where the character and expert made conflicting statements that an unknown, hidden food was “Yummy” or “Yucky”.
In the objective trials, a 2(item type) x 2(age) MANOVA showed a significant main effect of item type, F(1, 38)=15.315, p < .001, η2=.287, where children endorsed the character’s labels for tools more often than for fruit (see Figure 2). There was no significant main effect of age nor interaction. In addition, children chose the character’s statements less often than chance for the fruit, t(39)=-2.461, p =.018, but at chance rates for the tools, t(39)=1.412, p =.166. Thus, when objects were identified more clearly, children were more likely to trust the expert’s statements about domain relevant objects.
In the subjective trials, children were equally likely to trust the character or the expert, t(39)=1.461, p =.152, and there was no effect of age, t(38)=.16, p =.873. Although children did not show differential trust in either informant, they endorsed “yummy” responses 75% of the time, suggesting that when children are uncertain about whom to trust, they rely on their own opinion. Taken together, the results of both experiments suggest that children consider relevant expertise and the type of judgement at hand when deciding whether to trust a familiar character or an expert.

Authors

• Allison Williams, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Judith Danovitch, University of Louisville
  Non-Presenting Author