Children’s Perceptions of Interactions With and Amongst Supernatural Concepts

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Previous literature has explored how religious children endorse supernatural concepts in response to difficult-to-explain events (Woolley et al., 2011; Wegner 2001). Research has also found that religious children endorse supernatural concepts at a higher rate than non-religious children and that children endorse different types of supernatural concepts based on their religiosity (Vaden & Woolley 2011; Woolley & Cox, 1997). Yet, there remains a gap in the literature as to how children form relationships between supernatural concepts. The current study aims to expand on this literature by first confirming existing patterns in religious children’s endorsements of three supernatural concepts, immanent justice, God, and luck, and then qualitatively analyzing how religious children understand these concepts in relation to each other. To better understand religious children’s supernatural concepts, we also included a small comparison group of non-religious children (defined as engaging in religious or spiritual practices less than once a month and indicating religion or spirituality as not very important to their identities).

Forty-three children (M age= 11.91) from highly religious families and 13 children from non-religious families (M age= 12.97, not significantly different), responded to a hypothetical vignette involving a fictional character who won a $1,000,000 contest prize (Woolley et al., 2011). The interviewer asked the child’s opinion about possible explanations for the event that utilized either luck, God, or immanent justice. Responses were coded for children’s endorsement of each supernatural concept. A qualitative thematic analysis investigated how children related these concepts to others in their understandings.
Consistent with previous literature using these vignettes, religious children preferred God-related explanations to other supernatural explanations (Woolley, 2011; see Table 1). Our thematic analysis revealed that over half of the children who endorsed immanent justice linked this explanation to their understanding of God through a causal chain in which God chose the prize winner based on his kind deeds (Woolley et al., 2011; Piaget, 1948). Furthermore, some religious children opposed the supernatural concept of luck because it appeared incompatible with their conception of the omnipresent nature of God.

By contrast, non-religious children prioritized the supernatural explanation of luck, rather than God. Further, our thematic analyses showed that the non-religious children’s explanations linked both luck and immanent justice with natural concepts. For example, they understood immanent justice as resulting from natural actions that increase the probability of winning a prize (e.g., nice people are more likely to be nominated by their friends for a prize). Non-religious children were significantly more likely to show this pattern (54%), dubbed “natural character,” than religious children (19%) Χ2 (df, N = 56) = 6.322; p = .012.

These findings suggest that while religious children linked various supernatural concepts to their understanding of the supernatural concept of God, non-religious children favored linking supernatural concepts to natural concepts. Not only do religious and non-religious children primarily endorse different types of supernatural concepts, they also understand these concepts through different schemas, likely reflecting different cultural frameworks, as displayed in their different ways of relating concepts.

Authors

• Anna E. Kim, Middlebury College
  Presenting Author

• Allison DiBianca Fasoli, Independent Scholar
  Non-Presenting Author

• Althea Kellett, Middlebury College
  Non-Presenting Author