Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds

A paper published in Cognitive Science in July details the results of a study of 5- and 6-year-old children and their interpretations of ordinary, religious, and magical protagonists. The children were asked about stories with ordinary realistic events, events brought about by divine intervention, and ordinarily impossible events (both with and without magic).

In realistic stories, all of the children believed the protagonist was a real person. In biblical stories, children with exposure to religion found the protagonists to be real, while children without a religious background did not.

Perhaps most interesting are the results from the third set of stories where ordinarily impossible events occurred. Were religious children more likely to believe magical characters were real?

Find out at wiley.com