Taking account of others’ goals in social information use: Developmental changes in 3- to 7-year-old children

•Social information use improved with age but only for exploration of alternatives.•Children were able to account for others’ conflicting motivations from 4 years.•Alignment of the demonstrator’s and children’s goals did not influence performance.•From 6 years children could infer the outcome of others’ behaviour.•Rates of copying were low at all ages, even when it was the appropriate response.