Understanding deceptive intentions behind pointing gestures in 12-15-month-old infants

•Comprehension of deceptive intentions were examined at the age of 12-15 months.•We used reliable, deceptive, and ambiguous conditions varying the intentions and knowledge of the partner.•12-15-month-old infants are able to discriminate reliable and deceptive action of adults.•They treated a novel person in the same situation as a new reliable source of information.•The past reliability of the experimenter increased the children's willingness to follow her communicative cues.

We examined the comprehension of deceptive intentions revealed in searching task in infancy, on the theoretical basis of natural pedagogy and epistemic trust. The main findings showed that 12-15-month-old infants are able to discriminate the reliable and the deceptive actions of adults, but they do not generalize their previous experience in connection with a novel person, who is treated as a new reliable source of information.