Children as Alibi Corroborators for Adults

TL;DR

This study shows that children are generally good at confirming an adult was present but often fail to notice when an adult leaves the room.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into children's reliability as alibi corroborators in real-world scenarios.

Findings

Most children accurately reported when an adult stayed in the room.

Many children failed to notice when an adult left the room, especially when asked direct yes/no questions.

Errors were more common in the main study when the adult's absence was more noticeable.

Abstract

Despite how frequently adults are alone with children, we know little about children's ability to corroborate alibis. In two studies, we investigated children's ability to act as alibi corroborators. In both studies, two visitors (one male, one female) attended children's summer camps to present science activities to the children. In the pilot study (N = 83; M
age = 7.1 years), for half of the children, the female researcher left the room for one of the activities. Children were then interviewed about the adults’ whereabouts either immediately or 1 day later. In the main study (N = 147; M
age = 9.40), the female researcher left the room for one activity in a more salient manner, and all children were interviewed 3 days later. Across both studies, though there was substantial variability, many children did not report that the female researcher left (pilot study, 82%; main study, 32%), despite direct questions about her presence. All inaccurate reports of an adult leaving were in response to the most direct (yes/no) question. These findings suggest that children are largely accurate in corroborating an alibi for someone who did not leave, but many children err when someone does leave. The present studies have implications for how to question children about an adult's whereabouts.

We investigated children's ability to report that an adult had left the room and was thus not present for a portion of a group activity. Most children were able to report when an adult stayed in the room, but errors were much more common in noticing and reporting that an adult had left the room. These findings have implications for children as alibi corroborators of adults’ activities.

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