Young Children Learn from Confident People

Young children have some impressive skills to identify poor sources of information, according to researchers at University of British Columbia. A study among children aged between four to five revealed that not only do they prefer to learn from people who appear confident, but they also keep track of how well the person's confidence has matched with their knowledge and accuracy in the past (a concept called calibration). Children avoid new information from people who have a history of being over confident. Susan Birch, the lead author of the study, said that children have an ability not to fall prey easily to misinformation and ensure they learn the most accurate information. The study comes at a time when adults find it difficult to deal with fake news across the online and social media.