Here are two kids, Charlie and Riley.
When Charlie and Riley were at school, it was snack time! There is a star on the chocolate bowl because all the kids parents picked out a snack that they think is a good choice for the kids, and all the parents picked the chocolate for them. The kids can choose either a chocolate or a broccoli, but they get to see which one has a star on it!
When they parents picked the chocolate, Charlie chose the chocolate, and Riley chose the broccoli.
Which snack do you think Charlie and Riley like more, broccoli or chocolate? How much more?
Now, at another school, where two other kids, Alex and Finn, went to school, the parents picked the broccoli for the kids for snack.
Alex chose the broccoli, and Finn chose the chocolate.
Which snack do you think Alex and Finn like more, broccoli or chocolate? How much more?
Inferring preferences from choices with default options
If you were like me, these might be the thoughts that came across your mind when you answered the questions above:
- Charlie likes chocolate a lot more than broccoli–star on the chocolate bowl must be just what she wanted.
- Riley likes broccoli a lot more than chocolate–she’s one of those kids who actually likes broccoli, why else would she choose it when even the parents picked the chocolate!
- Alex maybe likes the broccoli a little more than chocolate–he chose what the parents picked, so maybe he likes broccoli, but hey he’s still a kid, he can’t like it that much!
- Finn Likes chocolate a lot more than broccoli–he didn’t think twice about the star on the broccoli!
These inferences may be intuitive for you, but the cognitive process behind them is fascinating and quite complex!
In this stroy, the snack with a star on can be seen as a default. Defaults can often convey subtle social information, such as implicit recommendation from the default setter (Mckenzie et al, 2018). For example, when the parents picked the chocolate, they are imlicitly licencing the kids to have a treat; but when the parents picked the broccoli, they are recommending kids to eat healthy–a familiar scene at dinner tables. When a kids accepts the default option, they can be seen as following the parents’ recommendations, and when the switch away from the default option, they can be seen as following their own preferences. Therefore, whoever switches away from the default option is often seen as having a stronger preference than whoever accepted the default option–Finn must like chocolate a lot more than broccoli so he rejected the parents’ healthy recommendation of broccoli; Alex might still like chocolate, but maybe not so much, because he still stuck with the parents’ recommendation.
Past research has shown that indeed, adults often infer that individuals who actively switch away from a default option have stronger preferences than those who passively accept it (Leong et al., 2020; Lin et al., 2018). However, these research examined situations where people have little preconceived expectations of the choice-maker’s preference. What I am interested in is:
1. When people have expectations of others’ preferences (e.g., kids prefer chocolate to broccoli), do they update their belief about their preferences after observing an unexpected choice—Riley, a kid who presumably likes chocolate, actually picked the broccoli even if the parents let her eat chocolate?
2. More importantly, can children make the same inferences, that is, at what age are we capable of making such complex intersubjective inferences?
Preference inferences in Children
In a pilot study, I read the same stories above to 4- to 8-year-old kids, and asked them which snack does each kid like better. Of 8 kids, those who are around 7- or 8-years old make similar inferences as I did. They were able to make the subtle, yet compelx inference that the kid who picked the broccoli when the parents picked the chocolate is a real health nut–they liked the broccoli a lot more than chocoalte; they also inferred that the kid who picked the broccoli like the broccoli a little more than chocolate.
If you’re worried about whether kids have some particular thoughts about Charlie’s haircut makes her like broccoli better–they’re kids, they think anything–don’t worry, I mixed and matched the children and the default snack, so half the participants (who are also children) saw Charlie and Riley at a school where the chocolate had a star on it and Alex and Finn at a school where the broccoli had a star on it, and the other half saw the opposite.
Collecting more data now.
More updates coming soon!