Do Smiling Faces Change Children’s Minds? Testing Evaluative Conditioning in 3–6‑Year‑Olds

This study investigated evaluative conditioning (EC) in 3- to 6-year-olds (N = 61), testing how age and exemplar variability modulate attitude formation. In a 2 (Age) × 2 (Valence) × 2 (Exemplar Set) design, children viewed neutral shapes paired with valenced faces, then completed preference and memory tasks. Mixed-effects logistic regression revealed no overall EC effect. However, only older children exposed to multiple exemplars developed a preference for positively paired shapes. Explicit memory for pairings did not predict EC magnitude. Findings demonstrate EC is not uniformly robust but emerges under specific cognitive and stimulus conditions, clarifying when conditioning shapes preschoolers’ preferences.