A visit from 1 Running Head: CANDY WITCH A visit from the Candy Witch: Factors influencing young children’s belief in a novel fantastical being

Factors hypothesized to affect beliefs in fantastical beings were examined by introducing children to a novel fantastical entity, the Candy Witch. Results revealed that among older preschoolers, children who were visited by the Candy Witch exhibited stronger beliefs in the Candy Witch than did those who were not. Among children who were visited, older children had stronger beliefs than did younger children. Among children who were not visited, those with a high Fantasy Orientation believed more strongly than did those with a low Fantasy Orientation. Belief remained high one year later. At both time points, the number of other fantastical beings in which a child believed was significantly related to belief in the Candy Witch. A visit from 3 A visit from the Candy Witch: Factors influencing young children’s belief in a novel fantastical being There is considerable interest in developmental psychology in the nature of children's beliefs about the world. Children must ultimately learn to form beliefs that bear some correspondence to reality. They must integrate a number of sources of information to form and maintain these beliefs, including both direct perceptual evidence and interpretations of indirect evidence. They also need to learn to evaluate the arguments of people around them in order to make judgments about the truth of their assertions, and to evaluate these assertions against other sources of evidence they have encountered. The present study addresses one particular type of belief common to young children – fantasy beliefs. Specifically, we focus on belief in fantastical entities culturally defined mythical entities that, although known to be imaginary by adults, are believed in by young children. These sorts of childhood fantasy beliefs, such as beliefs in ghosts and monsters, involve entities that cannot be observed. Exploration of the factors that influence the formation of these beliefs can provide insight into general factors that support children's beliefs beyond direct observation. Understanding these factors is particularly important given that many of the facts that children learn about the world, like the existence of entities such as germs and the solar system, arise from sources other than direct observation. A visit from 4 However there are also aspects of childhood fantasy beliefs that make them unique among this larger set of beliefs. Most fantastical beings possess inherent contradictions in their attributes. Santa Claus appears human-like yet he travels in a sleigh pulled by flying deer. The tooth fairy deals in real money, yet she is omniscient, at least about who has lost a tooth and when s/he lost it. Children also receive mixed evidence from various cultural sources about fantastical beings. Some of their friends believe and some do not. Some books and movies raise the issue of their reality status. This distinguishes fantastical beings from other invisible or intangible entities. Certainly children never hear others saying that they do not believe in the existence of germs or of Saturn. Fantasy beliefs are also a pervasive component of childhood (Clark, 1995), which appears paradoxical, given the large volume of evidence suggesting that young children’s thinking is analogous to that of scientists (Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1997). The prevalence of childhood fantasy beliefs has fostered claims that children are qualitatively different from adults, living in a fantasy world and exhibiting high degrees of credulity (see e.g., Dawkins, 1995). Only through studying these beliefs can we evaluate these claims. One difficulty in studying children’s beliefs about fantastical beings is that children receive messages about these beings from a variety of sources (e.g., books, movies, peers, and parents). Thus, it is difficult to isolate the factors that influence the likelihood that children will believe in fantastical beings. Also, with the exception of cross-religious studies (see e.g., Prentice A visit from 5 & Gordon, 1986), it is difficult to obtain groups of similar children in which there is variation in participation in practices associated with these entities. Our goal is to explore the role of age and individual-difference variables on children’s beliefs in a fantastical being by introducing children to a novel fantastical being. Belief in fantastical beings The preschool and early elementary years are a time when children appear fascinated by the fantastical realm. From about age 3 to 7, children display high amounts of pretend play (Singer & Singer, 1990), create imaginary companions (Taylor, 1999), believe in magic (Phelps & Woolley, 1994; Rosengren & Hickling, 1994) and fantastical beings (Clark, 1995, Prentice, Manosevitz, & Hubbs, 1978). During the preschool period, American children typically believe in the existence of a number of fantastical entities, many of which are generic beings like dragons, and fairies (Rosengren & Hickling, 1994; Sharon and Woolley, in press). An even more striking demonstration of the large role of fantasy in children’s lives is the common belief in fantastical beings that are tied to specific events, such as holidays. Notable among these are two Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny that are associated with Christian holidays, and one the Tooth Fairy associated with a significant developmental transition. Research shows that belief in these event-related fantastical beings is significantly higher than belief in generic fantastical beings (Rosengren et al., 1994; Sharon and Woolley, in press). A visit from 6 Although this research is informative regarding when children believe and how many fantasy beliefs children hold, researchers know little about factors related to belief in fantastical beings. Aside from Prentice and Gordon’s (1986) investigation of Jewish children’s belief in Santa Claus, researchers have not explored the role of individual differences in children’s beliefs in fantastical beings. Yet research on other aspects of children’s magical thinking indicate that they are important (Johnson & Harris, 1994; Subbotsky, 1993; Rosengren & Hickling, 1994). In the next section we discuss some factors that might play a role in the formation of these beliefs. Factors influencing belief in fantastical beings There is considerable variation in belief among children. Some children believe in fantastical beings and some do not, some children believe in certain fantastical beings but not others, and some children are simply uncertain. Much research shows that age affects belief in fantastical beings: belief appears to peak around age 4 and declines substantially by age 8 (Clark, 1995; Prentice, et al., 1978; Rosengren et al., 1994). Unfortunately in all these studies researchers have simply assessed existing beliefs in known fantastical beings. We know little about how age affects the propensity to form beliefs. Would a child who was introduced to a fantastical entity at age 3 be more or less likely to believe than a child who heard about it at age 4 or 5? Because the traditional view of cognitive development is that children grow more, not less, skeptical with age (see e.g., Dawkins, 1995; Piaget, 1929; cf. Subbotsky, 1993), one might A visit from 7 expect older children to be less likely to endorse belief in a novel fantastical entity. Alternatively, Rosengren & Hickling (2000) suggest that the emergence of magical beliefs is made possible by a certain level of “cognitive sophistication,” which results from a combination of increased knowledge about the world and cultural support (pp. 78-79). With this view, we might not expect the youngest children to be the most credulous. Taylor (1999) notes that “some psychologists have hypothesized that children who believe in cultural myths might be the ones who engaged in fantasy in other parts of their lives – children who have imaginary companions or in some way demonstrate an unusual absorption or interest in fantasy” (p. 94). Traditionally, high involvement in fantasy activities (e.g., having an imaginary companion) has been thought to indicate an inability to make the fantasy-reality distinction. This same inability is purported to underlie belief in the real existence of fantasy figures. Thus the two have been linked theoretically. Alternatively, children with a high fantasy orientation might be viewed as experts within that domain; although they are intrigued by the fantasy world, they may be sophisticated in their ability to navigate it. Thus they might be less likely to believe in fantastical beings. Results regarding the effects of fantasy orientation on beliefs in fantastical beings are mixed. Singer and Singer (1981) found that imaginatively predisposed children were better able to distinguish between real and fictional TV plots, suggesting that having a strong fantasy A visit from 8 orientation aids in making reality/fantasy distinctions. Other researchers have found no differences in fantasy/reality judgments between children who had and those who lacked imaginary companions (Taylor, Cartwright, & Carlson, 1993) or between those who were more or less involved in fantasy (Dierker & Sanders, 1996). Prentice et al. (1978) found no relation between fantasy orientation and belief in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. In contrast, Sharon and Woolley (in press) found that children with a high fantasy orientation made more correct judgments of the reality status of a range of fantastical entities. We assess two other factors that may influence belief in a fantastical being: the number of fantastical beings in which a child already believes, and the child’s motivation to believe in the fantastical being. Regarding the first, Zusne and Jones (1989) report that, among adults, people who believe in one sort of paranormal phenomenon (e.g., ESP) are more likely to also believe in similar phenomena (e.g., astrology). To the extent that one can make an analogy between adults’ beliefs in anomalous phenomena and children’s fantasy beliefs (see e.g., Dawkins, 1995; Woolley,1997), children who already believe in one or more fantastical beings might be more receptive to the existence of another. Regarding motivation, it seemed conceivable that the extent to which children associate belief in a fantastical being with positive outcomes, such as receiving presents, might also influence belief. Although it might sound odd to think of believing in something because one A visit from 9 wants to, motivation to believe can certainly affect the types of evidence one pays attention to and how that evidence is interpreted (see e.g., Jones & Russell, 1980; Koehler, 1993; Russell & Jones, 1980). We reasoned that children who were excited about getting a new toy would be particularly likely to interpret the presence of that new toy as confirmation of the existence of the fantastical being who purportedly brought it. One aspect of motivation might involve a cost/benefit analysis, in which belief is stronger if the expected rewards outweigh any expected negative consequences. Studies of children’s magical beliefs have suggested that children may assess the costs and benefits of engaging in magical thinking (e.g., Subbotsky, 2001; Woolley & Phelps, 1994). A final factor that we investigated was the extent to which the child’s parents joined the experimenter in providing evidence that could be interpreted in favor of the fantasy figure’s existence. Parents often go out of their way to produce indirect "evidence" of the existence of fantastical beings. One unanswered question is whether exposure to this type of evidence increases children’s level of belief over and above what they would believe simply by hearing about the existence of the entity? Given developmental variation in how children assess and appreciate evidence (e.g., Dunbar & Klahr, 1989; Kuhn, Amsel, & O’Loughlin, 1988) it seems important to investigate what role these pieces of evidence play in children’s beliefs. A visit from 10 In the present study we introduced children to the "Candy Witch," a fantastical being associated with Halloween. Even though Halloween is widely celebrated, and is associated with certain generic fantasy creatures such as ghosts, and goblins, it does not have a single specific or dominant event-related fantastical being associated with it. Thus, we could introduce the Candy Witch without fear that it would compete with existing beliefs that a child would have relating to Halloween. We explored effects of age, existing beliefs, motivation to believe, individual Fantasy Orientation, and whether child was visited by the entity on belief in a novel fantastical entity. We also explored the extent to which children would attribute various human and nonhuman properties to a novel fantastical entity. Our goal was to gain insight into the types of inferences children might make about these kinds of entities, and how these inferences might be constrained (Boyer, 1994; 2001).