Papers

Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice

Adolescents aspire for independence and are often accused of not following the advice of others. Here, we investigated metacognitive development and advice taking across childhood and adolescence. To do this, we created a new space-themed game where participants made simple decisions about the numbers of, for example blue versus yellow, aliens there were on a planet. Participants were also given advice by a helpful ‘space advisor’ and could decide whether to stick with or switch their original decision. We found that adolescents, compared with children, had better metacognitive skills in that they were better able to intuit when they had made a good decision. This metacognitive skill allowed them to better resist misleading advice from others. ‘I know better, and I know I know better!’.

More information can be found here:
Moses-Payne ME, Habicht JBowler A, Steinbeis N & Hauser TU (2021). I know better! Emerging metacognition allows adolescents to ignore false advice. Developmental Science