We investigated social information processing related to risk taking by school children. We examined social information processing in third-grade elementary school children (N = 59) when deciding to follow a person that invited the children to follow him or her under two conditions: (1) the invitee was "known", or "unknown," and (2) the invitee’s desire was “consistent" or “inconsistent” with the child’s desire. The following results were obtained: (1) Children were more likely to make hostile attributions such as “a liar” or “a kidnapper,” aboutstrangers. (2) Children interpreted strangers’ intentions as hostile, regardless of whether their desires agreed or not. (3) When invited by a known person, there were no significant differences between the number of children that interpreted the person’s intentions as hostility, and the number of children that interpreted the person as kind. (4) Most children responded that they would avoid danger in “known” and "unknown" conditions, as well as in "consistent and “inconsistent" conditions. However, in three cases, children responded that they "would follow" the person. (5) These results suggest that the interpretations of other’s intentions are related to children’s avoidance behavior.
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