Young Children Are Wishful Thinkers: The Development of Wishful Thinking in 3- to 10-Year-Old Children |
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| Authors: | Adrienne O Wente Mariel K Goddu Teresa Garcia Elyanah Posner María Fernández Flecha Alison Gopnik |
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| Institution: | 1. University of California, Berkeley;2. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú |
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| Abstract: | Previously, research on wishful thinking has found that desires bias older children’s and adults’ predictions during probabilistic reasoning tasks. In this article, we explore wishful thinking in children aged 3- to 10-years-old. Do young children learn to be wishful thinkers? Or do they begin with a wishful thinking bias that is gradually overturned during development? Across five experiments, we compare low- and middle-income United States and Peruvian 3- to 10-year-old children (N = 682). Children were asked to make predictions during games of chance. Across experiments, preschool-aged children from all backgrounds consistently displayed a strong wishful thinking bias. However, the bias declined with age. |
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