Relational specificity of persuasion in children’s persuasive plays

Relational specificity of persuasion in children’s persuasive plays Research suggests that social cognitive abilities, particularly social perspective-taking and theory of mind (ToM), play a role in the development of persuasion in early and middle childhood. In the presented study, the inner state talk and perspective-taking in a natural persuasive play context were studied to explore the relational specificity of persuading an adult or a peer. Ninety 5 to 7-year-olds participated in a novel persuasion role-play task in which children were invited to convince an interactive puppet-partner. The results showed that while persuading an adult, children more often included terms used to denote thoughts, memories, or knowledge, that is cognitive inner state talk, as compared to persuading a peer playmate, when they more often referred to emotional and motivational states. Talking about the personal perspective of the persuaded person or the shared perspective of both play-characters was connected with the use of direct-bilateral persuasive strategies, like compromise or bargaining.