3-199 - How the Sociocultural Environment Impacts the Development of Children’s Religious Reasoning

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Research on children’s religious reasoning often focuses on the role of cognitive predispositions in the development of thinking (Richert & Granqvist, 2013). Recently, there have been calls for increased research on the role of the sociocultural environment on the development of religious thought. Given that religious beliefs have clear cultural origins (Banerjee & Bloom, 2013), this direction of research enhances our understanding of how the sociocultural environment influences learning and development.

The proposed symposium presents three papers and a discussion on this theme. The first paper examines children’s reasoning about the time before conception (“prelife”) in various cultures and religions. Findings show that even children raised in cultures without religious prelife beliefs (e.g., urban and indigenous Ecuador) display a bias for assuming existence during prelife; recent work with Mormon children will reveal the extent to which cultural support elaborates intuitive prelife beliefs. The second paper examines 5- to 10-year-old children’s teleological reasoning for significant life events. While younger children displayed a greater preference for teleological explanations than older children, children’s endorsement of teleological explanations for life events was unrelated to their religious exposure. The third paper examines the development of children’s concepts of God. Children anthropomorphized God more when they were younger, Christian, and had parents who anthropomorphized God compared to children who were older, Muslim, and had parents who did not anthropomorphize God. The discussion addresses the importance of incorporating sociocultural influences in research on children’s reasoning and the implications for the developmental mechanisms of religious cognition.

Sub Unit

• Cognitive Processes

Chair

• Nicholas John Shaman, University of California, Riverside

Discussant

• Rebekah A. Richert, University of California

Individual Presentations

• The Origins of Eternalist Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Developmental Approach among Ecuadorian, Indigenous Shuar, and Mormon Children - Presenting Author: Natalie Emmons, Boston University; Courtney Gallik, Boston University; Deb Kelemen, Boston Univ

• “What is the meaning of this?:” Children’s Teleological Reasoning About the Purpose of Life Events - Presenting Author: Konika Banerjee, Yale University

• Sociocultural Influences on Concepts of God among Christian and Muslim Children - Presenting Author: Nicholas John Shaman, University of California, Riverside; Anondah R Saide, University of California, Riverside; Insia Hirawala, University of California, Riverside; Rebekah A. Richert, University of California