It's How You Teach, Not What You Teach: Preschoolers Prefer Coordinative Instruction from Informants

This study investigates 3- to 6-year-old children’s preference towards informants who deliver instructions with or without coordination. In two experiments, children evaluated coordinative and non-coordinative informants on game-playing capability, willingness to engage with the informants, willingness to learn from the informants, and selective trust in unrelated tasks. In Experiment 1, 93 children (Mage = 61.38 months, SD = 10.11 months, range = 42.02-77.13 months, 45 girls) were recruited from a kindergarten in Fujian province, China. In Experiment 2, 90 children (Mage = 61.25 months, SD = 10.83 months, range = 42.60-78.25 months, 45 girls) were recruited from the same kindergarten as Experiment 1.