Two new studies published as Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds in the journal Cognitive Science find that young children given religious education have noticeable difficulty telling fact from fiction while children of the same age who have not had religious education do not.
Originally published at 11:22 pm CDT 7-19-2014
Studies: Children Exposed to Religion Have A Hard Time Distinguishing Fact From Fiction
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Two new studies published as Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds in the journal Cognitive Science find that young children given religious education have noticeable difficulty telling fact from fiction while children of the same age who have not had religious education do not.
The studies were also written up on the website Patheos.
5- and 6-year-old children were asked about the fact or fiction status of the protagonist in three different types of stories:
In realistic stories that only included ordinary events, all children believed the protagonist was a real person.
In religious stories that detailed impossible events that nonetheless take place, but by divine intervention, “claims about the status of the protagonist varied sharply with exposure to religion,” the paper’s abstract says.
Children who went to church or were enrolled in a parochial school (or both) believed the protagonist in these religious stories to be a real person.
Children without religious education thought the protagonist in these religious stories was a fictional character.
The children were then exposed to stories that contained fantastical and impossible events said to caused by magic in study 1 and left unexplained in study 2.
Secular children were far more likely than children who had received religious education and/or exposure to believe the protagonist in these fantastical stories was fictional.
The results of these studies suggest that exposure to religion has a powerful impact on children's ability to distinguish between reality and fiction and may explain why incredible conspiracy theories and other near-delusional beliefs appear to be more commonly held in deeply religious societies.
[Hat Tip: HeathenHassid.]