Impact of measurement activities on young children’s epistemic and interpersonal trust

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of activities conducted by children’s teachers twice a week, which emphasize the importance of measurement and mathematical data for decision making, on children’s informant selection and interpersonal trust decisions. In total, 55 children participated in the study for epistemic trust, and 54 children participated for interpersonal trust. Children interacted with two research assistants, one providing precise information and the other providing relative information regarding quantities, length, and weight. The findings revealed that, for epistemic trust, children from both groups preferred the relative informant over the precise informant both before and after the test. Regarding interpersonal trust decisions, the treatment groups showed a significant increase in the selection of the precise informant from the pretest to the posttest, whereas the control group’s selection decreased. The difference in the selection of the precise informant between the interpersonal trust decision groups from pretest to posttest was significant, favoring the treatment group. The reasons revealed that children considered competence in their epistemic trust decisions.