The good, the strong, and the accurate: Preschoolers’ evaluations of informant attributes Maria Fusaro ⇑ , Kathleen H. Corriveau, Paul L. Harris Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA article info Article history: Received 14 September 2010 Revised 17 June 2011 Available online 29 July 2011 Keywords: Selective trust Testimony Attribution Halo effect Traits Early childhood abstract Much recent evidence shows that preschoolers are sensitive to the accuracy of an informant. Faced with two informants, one of whom names familiar objects accurately and the other inaccurately, pre- schoolers subsequently prefer to learn the names and functions of unfamiliar objects from the more accurate informant. This study examined the inference process underlying this preference. We asked whether preschoolers make narrow inferences about infor- mants, broader trait-based inferences, or more global evaluative inferences. We further asked what inferences preschoolers make about a potential informant based on distinctions in the unrelated domain of physical strength. The results indicate that preschoolers make relatively narrow inferences when observing individual dif- ferences in accuracy even though they are prone to global evalua- tive inferences when observing individual differences in strength. Preschoolers’ burgeoning understanding of others as expert lan- guage users may underlie their selective endorsement of a more accurate informant. Ó 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Introduction For children to engage effectively in communication, they need to distinguish between trustworthy information sources and those that are prone to error. It is commonly assumed that preschoolers are gullible, believing everything they hear regardless of the source of the information. However, several researchers have recently shown that, in experimental settings, young children are more likely to accept claims from a previously accurate informant as compared with a previously errant informant (Birch, Vauthier, & Bloom, 2008; Jaswal & Neely, 2006; Koenig, Clément, & Harris, 2004; Koenig & 0022-0965/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.06.008 ⇑ Corresponding author. Present address: UC Davis MIND Institute, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. E-mail address: mfusaro@ucdavis.edu (M. Fusaro). Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 110 (2011) 561–574 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Experimental Child Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jecp