Can disagreement help young children become less overconfident and look for more information?

Details

Researchers tested whether encountering a different view could change how children responded when the evidence was unclear. Two preregistered experiments involved 136 US children aged four to six. Children saw ambiguous evidence about how something worked and then encountered a person working with the researchers who either agreed or disagreed with their explanation. Researchers measured children's confidence before and after that exchange, along with how long they searched for information about the correct answer.

Compared with agreement, disagreement reduced overconfidence and encouraged a longer search for information. Disagreement with an expert in the second experiment was especially effective. These findings concern confidence and information seeking during an experimental task; they do not establish that disagreement improved answer accuracy or produced lasting humility or learning. The authors suggest that the results could inform efforts to support humility and learning, rather than demonstrating that such approaches already work across ages.