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Thinking about fantasy: Are children fundamentally different thinkers and believers from adults?

Thinking about fantasy: Are children fundamentally different thinkers and believers from adults?. Jacqueline D. Woolley The University of Texas.

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Thinking about fantasy: Are children fundamentally different thinkers and believers from adults?

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  1. Thinking about fantasy:Are children fundamentally different thinkers and believers from adults? Jacqueline D. Woolley The University of Texas

  2. “ Children under the age of 7 are most at risk because they have trouble distinguishing between reality and fantasy.” Sesame Street Parents magazine, February, 1999. • "... the boundary between reality and fantasy may still not be clearly drawn." • "... reality and imagination are not always kept strictly apart in the child's world.” Astington, J. W. (1993). The child's discovery of the mind. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (p. 63).

  3. Fantasy beliefs and behaviors in children • highest incidence of pretend play in children between the ages of 3 and 8 • highest level of children with imaginary companions in this same age range (Singer & Singer, 1990; Taylor, Cartwright, and Carlson, 1993). • high level of beliefs in event-related figures and supernatural figures (Rosengren & Hickling, 1994; Clark, 1995; Harris, Brown, Marriot, Whittal, and Harmer, 1991). • high level of beliefs in magic(Johnson & Harris, 1994; Rosengren & Hickling, 1994; Phelps & Woolley, 1994; Subbotsky, 1994).

  4. Talk outline • Do children think fantastically? • Regarding the domain of mental phenomena • Do adults think fantastically? • How do children think about fantasy? • Beliefs about the reality status of novel entities • How do adults think about fantasy? • Conclusions

  5. Do children fail to distinguish imagination and reality? • Do children believe they can create real, physical things with their imagination?

  6. Results • Study 1 • 1st choice - 99% gave E2 Box 1 (containing real item). • 2nd choice - 96% said there were no more. • Study 2 • 1st choice - 73% responded that there was no available object. • Study 1 + Study 2 • 10% gave E2 the box with the imagined item. Woolley & Phelps (1994)

  7. Lisa: Do plants wish for baby plants? • Deana: I think only people can make wishes. But God could put a wish inside a plant. • Teacher: What would the wish be? • Deana: What if it's a pretty flower? Then God puts an idea inside to make this plant into a pretty red flower -- if it's supposed to be red. • Teacher: I always think of people as having ideas. • Deana: It's just the same. God puts a little idea in the plant to tell it what to be. • Lisa: My mother wished for me and I came when it was my birthday. Vivian Gussin Paley, Walley's Stories (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981)

  8. Interview and prediction task results • Interview questions: 3-4 year olds 5-6 year olds Do you know what it means to make a wish? 65% 93% Have you ever made a wish? 54% 87% Do wishes always come true? 22% 0% Have own wishes come true? 56% 38% • Prediction task: Will _______ be in the box? 71% 31% • Woolley, Phelps, Davis, & Mandell (1999)

  9. Situations that lead to magical thinking in adults • 1. When faced with a threat which arouses anxiety (Keinan, 1994) • 2. Where perception of control is lacking (Langer, 1975) • 3. Games of chance (Weisz, 1981) • 4. Illness (Taylor, 1983; Taylor, Lichtman, & Wood, 1984) • 5. Stress (Keinan, 1994) • 6. Contemplation of death (Persinger & Makarec, 1990)

  10. Blum & Blum (1974) Walking under a ladder 47% Knocking on wood 41% Breaking a mirror 41% Blum (1976) Walking under ladder 46% Knocking on wood 46% Crossing fingers 35% Breaking a mirror 35% Gallup and Newport (1991) Faith healing 46% Demonic possession 49% Fortune telling 14% Frazier, as cited in Stanovich (1994) Astrology (adults) 58% Gallup (1984) Astrology (teens) 55% CHILDREN’S BELIEFS Imagination creates reality 42% (Woolley & Wellman) Imagination creates reality 23 -38 % (Woolley & Phelps) Touching/opening the monster box (Harris et al.) 50% 42% Categorized as “credulous” 63% (Johnson & Harris) 68% Believed in wishing 56% (Woolley, et al., 1999) 38% Superstitious beliefs in adults

  11. Some proponents of the credulity view • “ Children are especially credulous, especially gullible, especially prone toward acceptance and belief…” (Gilbert, 1991, p. 111) • “Children are naturally credulous… it is easy to see why natural selection… might penalize an experimental and skeptical turn of mind and favor simple credulity in children” (Dawkins, 1995, p. 32-33).

  12. Context study • Three conditions: Scientific, fantastical, everyday • Task: Judge reality of 3 novel entities • Context manipulation: • Novel entities were defined with reference to either a fantastical (dragon), scientific (scientist), or everyday (child) entity

  13. Sample novel entity and associated descriptions Surnit • Scientific condition. Scientists like to try to catch them. Surnits are usually medium-sized. Scientists collect surnits. • Fantasy condition. Dragons like to try to catch them. Surnits are usually medium-sized. Dragons collect surnits. • Everyday condition. Children like to try to catch them. Surnits are usually medium-sized. Children collect surnits. • Test question: Are surnits real or pretend?

  14. Novel entities judged as real by age and condition Woolley & VanReet, 2006

  15. Candy Witch study • Difficulties in studying fantasy beliefs: • 1. Multiple sources of information • 2. Already developed beliefs at time of assessment

  16. Mean belief level (out of 2) • Candy Witch 1.4 • Santa Claus 1.6 • Easter Bunny 1.2 • Real entities (child, cat, teacher) 1.5

  17. Factors affecting belief level • Age • Whether children were “visited” by CW • Beliefs in familiar fantasy figures

  18. Belief in the Candy Witch by age group and condition Woolley, Boerger, & Markman, 2005

  19. ADULTS’ BELIEFS • 1988 Gallup Youth Survey; Frazier, 1989 • Big Foot 22% • Ghosts 22% • Loch Ness Monster 16% • Gallup and Newport (1991) • Haunted houses 29% • Ghosts 25% • Devils 55% • UFO sightings are real 47% • (Gallup pole; Zimmer, 1985) • UFOs are alien spaceships 32% • (Zimmer, 1985) • extraterrestrials have visited Earth 27% • (Gallup and Newport, 1991)

  20. “We go to church and he has CCD classes.... and they’re taught that God sees everything and he knows; he knows what you’re doing and when you’re doing it. If you need help, he’s there. And he watches over you. And I think, what I was telling him about Santa one time, about being good. Santa knows if you don’t behave. He kinda got the same feeling. “Oh well, Santa watches over me all year round too.”... He says, “Is he like God, does he do the same thing God does?” Clark, C.D. (1995), Flights of fancy, leaps of faith. University of Chicago Press.

  21. “One father told of the son asking him if he was really Santa Claus. The father had admitted that he was, after which the boy thought for a while, and then asked if his father was also the Tooth Fairy. Again the father admitted that he was. The son then asked if the father was also the Easter Bunny, and when the father said yes, the son asked “Are you God too?” Schiebe, C. (1987), Developmental differences in children’s reasoning about Santa Claus and other fantasy characters, Dissertation: Cornell University.

  22. Questions and Answers • Old question: Do children fail to differentiate fantasy from reality? • Old answer: Yes • New question: Do children and adults differ in their ability to differentiate fantasy from reality? • New answer: No. • Children are not uniformly credulous.

  23. Acknowledgements • This research is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development # R01-HD030300-06. • Many thanks to my graduate students: Beth Boerger, Victoria Cox, Debra Davis, Katrina Phelps, and Ansley Tullos, and also to undergraduate Honors students: Walter Lacy, Dorothy Mandell, Rachel Riskind, and Jennifer VanReet. Additional thanks to my PSY 357 students, and to the parents and children who participated.

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