Abstract
Conspicuous among those whom “you can fool all of the time” are innocent children. This follows for the reason that mistrust, whatever else it may be, is also something of an intellectual accomplishment, the achievement of which is neither quick nor automatic. Still, learning about deceit and the broader possibilities for false belief is a standard part of what we take growing up to mean. Our chapter is about this loss of innocence. What will be said on this subject is meant to persuade you of two things. One of these is that there are good reasons for believing that by 2 or 3 years of age, but not much before, young children first acquire those cognitive competencies required to appreciate that persons can be misled into taking as true what is otherwise known to be false. The other is that, in addition to all of its otherwise uplifting effects, this same cognitive accomplishment has the harsh consequence of also eroding an earlier and more earnest faith in the simple truth of what others have to say. Something like this new prospect for bad faith is almost certainly a part of what Erikson (1950) had in mind by his regular insistence that the issue of trust, while held out as the centerpiece of only the first of his psychosocial periods, is repeatedly taken up and reworked at each subsequent juncture along the life-span developmental course.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Anderson, M. (1986). Cultural concatenation of deceit and secrecy. In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives on human and nonhuman deceit (pp. 323–348). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Astington, J.W., Harris, P.L., & Olson, D.R. (1988). Developing theories of mind. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bretherton, I., & Beeghly, M. (1982). Talking about internal states. The acquisition of an explicit theory of mind. Developmental Psychology, 18, 906–921.
Byrne, W., & Whiten, A. (1988). Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and humans. Oxford, UK: Claredon Press.
Chandler, M.J. (1987). The Othello effect: An essay on the emergence and eclipse of skeptical doubt. Human Development, 30, 137–159.
Chandler, M.J. (1988). Doubt and developing theories of mind. In J.W. Astington, P.L. Harris, & D.R. Olson (Eds.), Developing theories of mind (pp. 387–413). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Chandler, M.J., Fritz, A.S., & Hala, S.M. (1989). Small scale deceit: Deception as a marker of 2−, 3− and 4−year olds’ early theories of mind. Child Development, 60, 1263–1277.
Chevalier-Skolnikoff, S. (1986). An exploration of the ontogeny of deception in human beings and nonhuman primates. In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives on human and nonhuman deceit (pp. 205–220). Albany: State University of New York Press.
de Waal, F. (1988). Chimpanzee politics. In W. Byrne & A. Whiten (Eds.), Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans (pp. 122–131). Oxford, UK: Claredon Press.
Dennett, D.C. (1987). The intentional stance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Donaldson, M. (1978). Children’s minds. New York: W.W. Norton.
Dunn, J. (1988). The beginnings of social understanding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Erikson, E.H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: W.W. Norton.
Forguson, L., & Gopnik, A. (1988). The ontogeny of common sense. In J.W. Astington, P.L. Harris, & D.R. Olson (Eds.), Developing theories of mind (pp. 226–243). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Freeman, N.H., & Doherty, M.J. (1989). Preschoolers solve a false-belief problem on a need-to-know basis. Unpublished manuscript, University of Bristol, UK.
Gopnik, A. (1990). Developing the idea of intentionality: Children’s theories of mind. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 20, 89–114.
Hala, S., Chandler, M., & Fritz, A.S. (1991). Fledgling theories of mind: Deception as a marker of 3-year-olds’ understanding of false belief. Child Development, 62, 83–97.
Hogrefe, G.J., Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1986). Ignorance versus false belief: A developmental lag in epistemic states. Child Development, 57, 567–582.
Howes, C. (1985). Sharing fantasy: Social pretend play in toddlers. Child Development, 56, 1253–1258.
Hyman, R. (1989). The psychology of deception. Annual Review of Psychology, 40, 133–154.
LaFreniere, P. (1988). The ontogeny of tactical deception in humans. In R.W. Byrne & A. Whiten (Eds.), Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and humans (pp. 238–252).Oxford, UK: Clarendon.
Lempers, J.D. (1979). Young children’s productions and comprehension of nonverbal deitic behaviors. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 3, 253–272.
Leslie, A. (1988). Some implications of pretense for the development of theories of mind. In J.W. Astington, P.L. Harris, & D.R. Olson (Eds.), Developing theories of mind (pp. 19–46). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Leung, H.L., & Rheingold, H.L. (1981). Development of pointing as a social gesture. Developmental Psychology, 47, 1148–1158.
Lewis, C, & Osborne, A. (1989). Three-year-olds’ problems with false belief: Conceptual deficit or linguistic artifact. Unpublished manuscript, University of Lancaster, UK.
Lewis, M., Stanger, C, & Sullivan, M.W. (1989). Deception in 3-year-olds. Developmental Psychology, 25, 439–443.
Lloyd, J.E. (1986). Firefly communication and deception: “Oh what a tangled web.” In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives on human and nonhuman deceit (pp. 113–128). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Mitchell, R.W. (1986). A framework for discussing deception. In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives on human and nonhuman deceit(pp. 3–31). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Morgan, C.L. (1894). An introduction to comparative psychology. London: Walter Scott.
Moses, L. (1990, May). Testing the limits of children’s belief difficulties. Paper presented at the Twentieth Anniversary Symposium of the Jean Piaget Society, Philadelphia.
Olson, D.R., Astington, J.W., & Harris, P.L. (1988). Introduction. In J.W. Astington, P.L. Harris, & D.R. Olson (Eds.), Developing theories of mind (pp. 10–15). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Perner, J. (in press). Understanding the representational mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Perner, J., Leekam, S.R., & Wimmer, H. (1987). Three-year-old’s difficulty with false belief: The case for conceptual deficit. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 5, 125–137.
Peskin, J. (1989). Ruse and representations: On children’s ability to conceal their intentions. Unpublished manuscript, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Canada.
Piaget, J. (Original work published 1932) (1965). The moral judgement of the child. New York: Free Press.
Premack, D. (1988). “Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?” Revisited. In W. Byrne & A. Whiten (Eds.), Machiavellian intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes and humans (pp. 160–179). Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.
Premack, D., & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1, 515–526.
Russell, J., Sharpe, S., & Mauthner, N, (1989, September). Strategie deception in a competitive game. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Spociety, Developmental Section. University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Selman, R.L. (1980). An analysis of “pure” perspective taking: Games and the delights of deception. In R.L. Selman, The growth of interpersonal understanding (pp. 49–68). New York: Academic Press.
Sexton, D.J. (1986). The theory and psychology of military deception. In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives of human and nonhuman deceit (pp. 349–356). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Shultz, T.R., & Cloghesy, K. (1981). Development of recursive awareness of intention. Developmental Psychology, 17, 456–471.
Sodian, B. (in press). The development of deception in young children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology.
Sordahl, T.A. (1986). Evolutionary aspects of avian distraction display: Variation in American avocet and black-necked stilt antipredator behavior. In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives on human and nonhuman deceit (pp. 87–112). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Strichartz, A.F., & Burton, R.V. (1990). Lies and truth: A study of the development of the concept. Child Development, 61, 211–220.
Vasek, M.E. (1988). Lying as a skill: The development of deception in children. In R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson (Eds.), Deception: Perspectives on human and nonhuman deceit (pp. 271–292). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Wellman, H.M. (1988). First steps in the child’s theorizing about the mind. In J.W. Astington, P.L. Harris, & D.R. Olson (Eds.), Developing theories of mind (pp. 64–92). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Wellman, H.M. (1990). Children’s early theories of mind. Bradford Books.
Wimmer, H., Gruber, S., & Perner, J. (1985). Young children’s conception of lying: Moral intention and the denotation and connotation of “To lie.” Develop mental Psychology, 21, 993–995.
Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103–128.
Zaitchik, D. (1989). Is only seeing really believing?: Sources of the true belief in the false belief task. Unpublished manuscript, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chandler, M., Hala, S. (1991). Trust and Children’s Developing Theories of Mind. In: Rotenberg, K.J. (eds) Children’s Interpersonal Trust. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3134-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3134-9_9
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7808-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-3134-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive