Difficulté des jeunes enfants à comprendre la dissimulation des émotions

Cette étude examine le développement de la compréhension de la dissimulation des émotions chez des enfants d'âge scolaire. Les participants écoutent de courtes histoires dans lesquelles un personnage principal exprime ouvertement une émotion ou, au contraire, la dissimule à son entourage. Ils doivent ensuite identifier l'émotion réelle et l'émotion apparente du personnage principal et porter un jugement sur la croyance du personnage secondaire. Les résultats révèlent que les enfants de 5-6 ans ont une certaine compréhension de la dissimulation des émotions, mais que celle-ci est incomplète. Comparativement aux enfants de 9-10 ans, ils ont de la difficulté à appréhender la simultanéité des émotions réelles et apparentes ainsi que l'effet trompeur de la dissimulation. The authors investigated the understanding of emotion dissimulation in school-age children. Sixty participants were read short stories in which a main character expressed an emotion or hid an emotion from other characters. The participants were asked to identify the emotion felt by the main characters and to indicate the facial expressions they would display. Then they were asked what emotions the main characters felt while they were displaying these expressions, and what the beliefs of the other story characters would be as to the emotion felt by the main characters. The results revealed that children from 5 to 6 years of age have a partial understanding of emotion dissimulation. They were accurate in finding the emotion felt by the main characters when questioned the first time. They were also accurate in choosing the expressions the main characters would display to hide their emotions. However, they were often inaccurate as to the felt emotions of the main characters when questioned the second time. Compared with 9- and 10-year-olds, the younger children had more difficulty understanding the simultaneous character of felt and displayed emotions. Five- and 6-year-olds were also less accurate than the older children when asked to indicate the beliefs of the other characters in stories where felt emotions were hidden.