Children's understanding of conditional promise contract violations

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that young children readily understand contract violations that have a prescriptive element. However, prior research has only investigated social contracts where the child is being addressed. In the current study, we reversed the child's role to the speaker (the party initiating a contract) and investigated the capability of young children to detect the violator of conditional promises. Children aged 5 to 7 were presented with scenarios in which conditional promises were made between a child protagonist and a parent or a superordinate peer. When the child in the story was the addressee, older children were better able to identify a superordinate party as a violator. Children were better able to detect a superordinate violator in stories where the conditional promise was made with a peer. Children's identification of a subordinate violation varied as a function of age and story type. In evaluating not p and not q situations, older children were better able to ignore power asymmetry to identify a superordinate violator or bilateral violation when the child in the story was the speaker. These findings reveal that young children are sensitive to the role of the speaker and obligations in a social contract. Highlights This study aimed to investigate the capability of young children to detect the violator of conditional promises. The results showed a three‐way interaction among the context, the status of the violating party, and the child's role as speaker or addressee. These findings further our understanding of the deontic advantage and the impact of various types of conditional promises made with superordinates in daily life.

Children’s Understanding and Experience of Conditional Promise with Mothers: Focused on Children’s Trust in Mothers and Self-Regulation

“…, Keller, Takezawa, & Wichary, 2007;Chin & Lin, 2018;Keller, Gummerum, Tien Wang, & Lindsey, 2004). 4 (Barrett et al, 2007;Chin & Lin, 2018;Keller et al, 2004), .…”