Preschool Children's Persuasion Knowledge: The Contribution of Theory of Mind

Two studies investigate the influence of developmental variables on the emergence of persuasion knowledge in children ages three to five years. Theory of mind (a form of social development) consistently explains a significant amount of variance in children's persuasion knowledge. Theory of mind is a well-researched variable in the developmental psychology literature. This form of social development enables a child to understand the mental states of others and to use that mental state understanding to predict others' future behavior. The results of the current study indicate that before theory-of-mind development, children are unable to recognize persuasion in advertising, most likely because they cannot think about the intentions of the advertiser. The findings are important to the development of child consumer literacy and contribute to the extant literature by demonstrating that developmental factors can explain how persuasion knowledge develops. The authors discuss theoretical, practical, and public policy implications.