When trust and mistrust are misplaced: lessons from early childhood

Early on, children appreciate that the people around them can be excellent sources of information. At the same time, they also encounter claims that are confusing, difficult to understand, false, or hard to reconcile with other beliefs. When faced with these hard-to-believe claims, there is something in favour of accepting them, namely that someone important has vouched for their truth. Here, we discuss what is involved when children make ordinary decisions like these. When do children think it is appropriate to mistrust someone, when do they take people at their word, and how do they decide? This chapter begins with an overview of how trust develops in childhood, discusses the consequences of believing an untrustworthy person or not believing a trustworthy person, and concludes with potential solutions for mitigating the harm that results from miscalculating trust.