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Did She Jump Because She Was the Big Sister or Because the Trampoline Was Safe? Causal Inference and the Development of Social Attribution
Author(s) -
Seiver Elizabeth,
Gopnik Alison,
Goodman Noah D.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01865.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , causal inference , inference , social psychology , social cognition , developmental psychology , causality (physics) , trampoline , causal reasoning , cognitive psychology , child development , social perception , cognition , perception , epistemology , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , economics , econometrics , computer science , operating system
Children rely on both evidence and prior knowledge to make physical causal inferences; this study explores whether they make attributions about others' behavior in the same manner. A total of one hundred and fifty‐nine 4‐ and 6‐year‐olds saw 2 dolls interacting with 2 activities, and explained the dolls' actions. In the person condition, each doll acted consistently across activities, but differently from each other. In the situation condition, the two dolls acted differently for each activity, but both performed the same actions. Both age groups provided more “person” explanations (citing features of the doll) in the person condition than in the situation condition. In addition, 6‐year‐olds showed an overall bias toward “person” explanations. As in physical causal inference, social causal inference combines covariational evidence and prior knowledge.