Beliefs about unobservable scientific and religious entities are transmitted via subtle linguistic cues in parental testimony

Abstract

We explored the role of parental testimony in children’s developing beliefs about the ontological status of typically unobservable phenomena. US parents and their 5- to 7-year-old children (N = 25 dyads) separately rated their confidence in the existence of scientific and religious unobservable entities (e.g., germs, angels), and were invited to engage in an unmoderated dyadic conversation about the entities. Both parents and children were more confident in the existence of the scientific entities compared to the religious entities. Parental religiosity predicted the strength of their belief in the religious entities, and these beliefs were positively associated with their children’s judgements in the domain of religion. We coded parental testimony produced during the unmoderated conversation for a number of subtle linguistic cues that convey their confidence and prevailing beliefs in an entity’s existence. The results revealed consistent cross-domain differences: parents expressed more uncertainty, were more likely to mention variation in people’s beliefs and make explicit claims about the ontological status of the religious, as compared to the scientific entities. However, with increasing religiosity, parents produced fewer cues to uncertainty, mentioned belief variation less often, and were more likely to make claims of endorsement when talking about the religious unobservables. Importantly, the pattern of linguistic cues in parental testimony was significantly associated with children’s ontological judgements. The present findings have implications for understanding the socio-cultural mechanisms by which confidence in the existence of invisible agents and processes develops in childhood.

Children's Ideas About What Can Really Happen: The Impact of Age and Religious Background

“…Given the findings above documenting the role of testimony in children's beliefs in the unobservable and the impossible, the strength of such beliefs is likely to vary based on the cultural input that children receive in a given community (McLoughlin, Jacob, Samrow, & Corriveau, 2021). This is indeed what the evidence suggests.…”

When is cultural input central? The development of ontological beliefs about religious and scientific unobservables

“…Additional support for the prominent role of cultural input—specifically, parental testimony—in children’s beliefs about supernatural unobservables comes from studies investigating links between features of parental talk and children’s ontological beliefs. For example, among U.S. 5‐ to 7‐year‐olds and their parents, more expressions of ontological uncertainty in parents’ language about supernatural unobservables were associated with children’s lower levels of confidence in the existence of those unobservables (McLoughlin et al, 2021b). Moreover, parents’ testimony and talk about supernatural unobservables may reflect culture‐specific patterns.…”

“…Cultural input in the form of differential adult talk about the two kinds of entities may help explain the differences in confidence about natural versus supernatural entities (see Harris, 2021b; Harris & Corriveau, 2021, for emphasis on the role of testimony in developing beliefs about both religious and scientific unobservables). Indeed, evidence suggests that parents express more certainty when discussing natural unobservables with their children and less certainty when discussing supernatural unobservables (Canfield & Ganea, 2014; McLoughlin et al, 2021b). The degree of uncertainty parents express in their talk may be a function of their perceived level of community consensus, which in turn influences children’s ontological beliefs.…”

“…The degree of uncertainty parents express in their talk may be a function of their perceived level of community consensus, which in turn influences children’s ontological beliefs. However, although the differences in parents’ use of certainty indicators when referring to natural and supernatural unobservables are evident across diverse cultural settings (i.e., U.S. sample, religious Iranian sample, religious Chinese sample, secular Chinese sample; McLoughlin et al, 2021a, 2021b), these differences are not always related to community consensus. For example, among religious Iranians with high levels of community consensus about the existence of both natural and supernatural entities (Payir et al, 2018, 2021), parents expressed more certainty when speaking about natural than supernatural unobservables, but they rarely acknowledged diversity of belief with respect to either type of unobservables (McLoughlin et al, 2021a).…”

Cognitive reflection and authoritarianism relate to how parents respond to children's science questions

“…Alternatively, they could answer the question without providing any indication that the answer might be incorrect or that they are uncertain. Studies support that parents vary in how much they discuss uncertainty with their children (Canfield & Ganea, 2014;McLoughlin et al, 2021), and children notice some cues to uncertainty (Brosseau-Liard et al, 2014). Although it is not clear whether children prefer informants who appropriately acknowledge their uncertainty over those who do not (Tenney et al, 2011), when parents acknowledge uncertainty in discussions about evaluating evidence, children may talk more about evidence on their own (Luce et al, 2013; see also Butler, 2020).…”