God–Mother–Baby: What Children Think They Know

Kießling, F.; Perner, Josef

doi:10.1111/cdev.12210

Cited by 29 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…However, in contrast to some recent studies (Gim enez-Das ı et al, 2005;Kiessling & Perner, 2014;Lane et al, 2010Lane et al, , 2012, children rarely attributed mental state limitations to God even as their understanding of the limitations of human minds improved. Analyses confirmed the hypothesized religious group affiliation differences in differentiation.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 65%

“…This view has resulted in rather strong claims that young children conceive of God as an 'ignorant man in the sky' (Kiessling & Perner, 2014) and comes from research with primarily Catholic (Kiessling & Perner, 2014) or Protestant children (Lane et al, 2012). However, arguments that all children have a strongly anthropomorphic basis to their concept of God are challenged by recent evidence that Muslim preschoolers do not attribute embodied characteristics to Allah , suggesting the extent to which children's concepts of God are anthropomorphic can vary widely due to cultural input.…”

Section: Continuedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some studies, with American Protestant (Barrett, Newman, & Richert, 2003;Barrett, Richert, & Driesenga, 2001;Richert & Barrett, 2005;Wigger, Paxson, & Ryan, 2013) and Yucatec Mayan participants (Knight, Sousa, Barrett, & Atran, 2004), children rarely attributed mental state limitations to God even as their understanding of the limitations of human minds improved. In other studies, with Spanish children in secular or religious schools (Gim enez-Das ı, Guerrero, & Harris, 2005), Greek Orthodox children (Makris & Pnevmatikos, 2007), American children in secular or Protestant schools (Lane, Wellman, & Evans, 2010, 2012, or Austrian children in Catholic schools (Kiessling & Perner, 2014), for some period during the preschool years or depending on the way in which questions are phrased, children attributed human-like limitations to God's mind.…”

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confidence: 97%

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The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

Richert

Saide

Lesage

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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The current study examined the cultural factors (i.e., religious background, religious participation, parents' views of prayer, and parents' concepts of God) that contribute to children's differentiation between the capabilities of human minds and God's mind. Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Religiously Non‐Affiliated parents and their preschool‐aged children were interviewed (N = 272). Children of Muslim parents differentiated the most between God's mind and human minds (i.e., human minds are fallible but God's is not), and children who had greater differentiation between God's and humans' minds had parents who had the least anthropomorphic conceptions of God. Additionally, there was a unique effect of being raised in a Religiously Non‐Affiliated home on the degree of children's differentiation between God's and human minds after religious context factors had been accounted for; in other words, children of Religious Non‐Affiliates differentiated between humans and God the least and their differentiation was unrelated to religious context factors. These findings delineate the ways in which religious context differences influence concepts of God from the earliest formation. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Children's concept of God develops during the preschool years. The degree of anthropomorphism in children's concept of God varies. What does this study add? Muslim children have a strong differentiation between what God's mind and human minds can do. Religiously Non‐Affiliated children have almost no differentiation between God's and human minds. Parent anthropomorphism explains variance in children's God concepts, both within and across religious groups.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 65%

Section: Continuedmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 97%

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The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

Richert

Saide

Lesage

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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“…By 3 years of age, children appreciate that without perceptual access to a hidden entity, an ordinary person remains ignorant of its identity (O'Neill & Gopnik, 1991;Pillow, 1989;Pratt & Bryant, 1990). At around 5 years of age, children continue to attribute ignorance to ordinary people with restricted perceptual access but they also recognize the extraordinary knowledge that God and other special beings may have even in the absence of relevant perceptual access (Barrett, Richert, & Driesenga, 2001;Gim enez-Dasi, Guerrero, & Harris, 2005;Kiessling & Perner, 2014;Lane, Wellman, & Evans, 2010;Makris & Pnevmatikos, 2007).…”

Section: Extraordinary Abilities In the Psychological Realmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children prefer to learn from mind‐readers

Kim

Harris

2014

British J of Dev Psycho

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Kim and Harris (, J. Cogn. Dev.) showed that children selectively learned from an informant who produced apparently magical outcomes as compared to another informant who produced only ordinary outcomes in the domain of everyday physics. In the present study, we tested children's ability to differentiate between and selectively learn from informants who displayed either an extraordinary or an ordinary ability in the domain of everyday psychology. Prior studies have shown that children come to appreciate what is ordinarily involved in knowing the private mental states of other people. Drawing on this research, we asked whether 3- to 4- and 5- to 6-year-old children preferentially learned from an informant who knew another person's mind via either an ordinary or an extraordinary form of communication. As compared to younger children, older children were more likely to learn from the extraordinary informant. Moreover, children's ability to differentiate between the two informants was a better predictor of their learning from the extraordinary informant than age. We discuss the findings in the light of prior work on selective learning, children's ideas about prayer and their understanding of impossibility.

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“…In contrast, theorists who advocate an “anthropomorphism” perspective propose that young children have particular difficulty understanding extraordinary mental capacities and tend to conceive of even extraordinary agents’ minds as human-like (Giménez-Dasi & Harris, 2005; Kiessling & Perner, 2014; Lane, Wellman, & Evans, 2010, 2012; Makris & Pnevmatikos, 2007). As their ideas mature, children increasingly appreciate omniscience, although, as just discussed, even adults may fall short of a full understanding.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaching an understanding of omniscience from the preschool years to early adulthood.

Lane¹,

Wellman²,

Evans³

2014

Developmental Psychology

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Individuals in many cultures believe in omniscient (all-knowing) beings, but everyday representations of omniscience have rarely been studied. To understand the nature of such representations requires knowing how they develop. Two studies examined the breadth of knowledge (i.e., types of knowledge) and depth of knowledge (i.e., amount of knowledge within domains) that preschoolers, elementary-school children, and adults (N = 180) attributed to an all-knowing being. Preschoolers often reported that an omniscient mind would lack many types of knowledge, and completely failed to understand the depth of omniscient knowledge. With increasing age, children approached an understanding of omniscience—attributing broader and deeper knowledge to an omniscient agent—but only adults firmly understood the depth of omniscient knowledge. We identify socio-cultural and cognitive factors that correlate with children’s understandings of omniscience. Findings demonstrate that childhood representations of fallible, limited, human minds both make possible and constrain developing representations of radically non-human minds.

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God–Mother–Baby: What Children Think They Know

Cited by 29 publications

References 32 publications

The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

Children prefer to learn from mind‐readers

Approaching an understanding of omniscience from the preschool years to early adulthood.

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