The Boss is Always Right: Preschoolers Endorse the Testimony of a Dominant Over that of a Subordinate

Recent research has shown that young children rely on social cues to evaluate testimony. For instance, they prefer to endorse testi- mony provided by a consensual group than by a single dissenter. Given that dominance is pervasive in children’s social environ- ment, it can be hypothesized that children also use dominance relations in their selection of testimony. To test this hypothesis, a dominance asymmetry was induced between two characters either by having one repeatedly win in physical contests (physical power; Experiment 1) or by having one repeatedly impose her goals on the other (decisional power; Experiment 2). In two subsequent testi- mony tasks, 3- to 5-year-old children significantly tended to endorse the testimony of the dominant over that of the subordi- nate. These results suggest that preschoolers take dominance into account when evaluating testimony. In conclusion, we discuss two potential explanations for these findings.