Novelty preferences depend on goals.

ABSTRACT: People are sometimes drawn to novel items, but other times prefer familiar ones. In the present research we show, though, that both children's and adults' preferences for novel versus familiar items depend on their goals. Across four experiments, we showed 4- to 7-year-olds (total N = 498) and adults (total N = 659) pairs of artifacts where one was familiar and the other was novel (e.g., a four-legged chair and ten-legged chair). In Experiment 1, children wanted to have familiar artifacts, but to learn about novel ones. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern using a simpler procedure, and found the same pattern in adults. In Experiment 3, 4- to 6-year-olds and adults more strongly preferred familiar items when choosing which they would rather have than when choosing which they would rather t

SUBMITTER: Sehl CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135316 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature