Benefit of the doubt: Children’s attributions of benefit of the doubt based on relationships

Giving the benefit of the doubt can be defined as attributing neutral or positive intentions to someone who behaves negatively. In this study, we investigated whether children give the benefit of the doubt and if they are more likely to extend it to close others compared to distant social partners. 156 children (60.9% female; MAge= 6.68 years) heard a short story in which Taylor told Alex that they could not play together. Children were randomly assigned to hear that Taylor and Alex were either friends, classmates, or enemies. After hearing the story, children were asked to explain why Taylor rejected Alex. Their verbal responses were coded to measure whether they gave Taylor the benefit of the doubt. Our findings revealed a significant interaction between relationship and age (p = .011), eliciting questions about why allocation of benefit of the doubt shifts with age and what giving benefit of the doubt can tell us about children’s use of epistemic and social cues to evaluate others.