27-45

• Banerjee, Robin
• Watling, Dawn

The present study addresses children's performance on the 'faux pas' test of socialunderstanding. Based on previous tasks reported in Baron-Cohen et al. (1999) and Banerjee(2000), a computer interface was used to administer a new version that required children toanswer forced-choice questions about four hypothetical stories involving unintentional insults.In a sample of 308 children the 5- to 6-year-olds were significantly poorer on the faux pas testthan the 8- to 9-year-olds, as expected. Although the children performed well in identifyingthat feelings had been hurt and in answering comprehension questions, they found three questionsrelatively difficult: detecting the faux pas in the first place, seeing that the insult was unintentional,and recognising the ignorance that led to the faux pas. Importantly, success on thekey questions of the faux pas task was negatively associated with peer rejection. Rejected andcontroversial children, who receive relatively high numbers of negative sociometric nominationsfrom their classmates, performed significantly worse on this task than other children.This pattern was evident only for the older age group. Results are discussed in the light ofrecent research linking theory of mind performance with social adjustment.

• Psychology

• Developmental psychology

faux pas, peer relations, theory of mind

Περιέχει πίνακα, διαγράμματα και βιβλιογραφία, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος vol.2, No.1, 2005 με τίτλο: Young childrens theory of mind