Institutes of Psychological Sciences, Hangzhou Normal University, PR China.
Zhejiang Key Laboratory for Research in Assessment of Cognitive Impairments, PR China.
Dev Sci. 2018 May;21(3):e12585. doi: 10.1111/desc.12585. Epub 2017 Jul 12.
The present research examined the consequences of telling young children they have a reputation for being smart. Of interest was how this would affect their willingness to resist the temptation to cheat for personal gain as assessed by a temptation resistance task, in which children promised not to cheat in the game. Two studies with 3- and 5-year-old children (total N = 323) assessed this possibility. In Study 1, participants were assigned to one of three conditions: a smart reputation condition in which they were told they have a reputation for being smart, an irrelevant reputation control condition, or a no reputation control condition. Children in the smart reputation condition were significantly more likely to cheat than their counterparts in either control condition. Study 2 confirmed that reputational concerns are indeed a fundamental part of our smart reputation effect. These results suggest that children as young as 3 years of age are able to use reputational cues to guide their behavior, and that telling young children they have a positive reputation for being smart can have negative consequences.
本研究考察了告诉幼儿他们有聪明的声誉会带来什么后果。研究的重点是，通过一项抵制诱惑任务来评估这将如何影响他们拒绝为个人利益作弊的意愿，在该任务中，孩子们承诺在游戏中不作弊。这项研究有两个，涉及 3 岁和 5 岁的儿童（总 N=323），评估了这种可能性。在研究 1 中，参与者被分配到三个条件之一：聪明的声誉条件，他们被告知他们有聪明的声誉；不相关的声誉控制条件；或没有声誉控制条件。聪明声誉条件下的孩子比任何控制条件下的孩子作弊的可能性都大。研究 2 证实了声誉的担忧确实是我们聪明声誉效应的一个基本部分。这些结果表明，年仅 3 岁的儿童就能够利用声誉线索来指导他们的行为，而告诉幼儿他们有聪明的正面声誉可能会带来负面影响。
