{"title":"Overhearing adults' side comments influences young children's question-asking.","authors":"Li Zhao, Sihuan Zhu, Junjie Peng","doi":"10.1093/chidev/aacag061","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This research investigated whether overheard adult evaluations about another child's question-asking behavior affect young children's own inquiry. In three studies with 440 5-6-year-olds (Mage = 6.06 years, 217 girls; middle-class Chinese), Study 1 showed that children who overheard brief positive comments about another child's questioning behavior asked twice as many questions as neutral controls. Study 2 demonstrated that overheard negative feedback about question-asking behavior halved inquiry rates. Study 3 replicated and generalized these effects to a new task. Across studies, effects were specific to comments targeting questioning behavior rather than the questioner or question quality. Thus, brief, overheard comments can significantly influence children's willingness to seek information under uncertainty, highlighting the role of subtle social cues in shaping children's curiosity and behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":10109,"journal":{"name":"Child development","volume":" ","pages":"1797-1809"},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2026-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Child development","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1093/chidev/aacag061","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This research investigated whether overheard adult evaluations about another child's question-asking behavior affect young children's own inquiry. In three studies with 440 5-6-year-olds (Mage = 6.06 years, 217 girls; middle-class Chinese), Study 1 showed that children who overheard brief positive comments about another child's questioning behavior asked twice as many questions as neutral controls. Study 2 demonstrated that overheard negative feedback about question-asking behavior halved inquiry rates. Study 3 replicated and generalized these effects to a new task. Across studies, effects were specific to comments targeting questioning behavior rather than the questioner or question quality. Thus, brief, overheard comments can significantly influence children's willingness to seek information under uncertainty, highlighting the role of subtle social cues in shaping children's curiosity and behavior.
期刊介绍：
As the flagship journal of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), Child Development has published articles, essays, reviews, and tutorials on various topics in the field of child development since 1930. Spanning many disciplines, the journal provides the latest research, not only for researchers and theoreticians, but also for child psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, psychiatric social workers, specialists in early childhood education, educational psychologists, special education teachers, and other researchers. In addition to six issues per year of Child Development, subscribers to the journal also receive a full subscription to Child Development Perspectives and Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development.
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