Wednesday, July 23, 2014

children exposed to religion have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction...,


rawstory |  A study published in the July issue of Cognitive Science determined that children who are not exposed to religious stories are better able to tell that characters in “fantastical stories” are fictional — whereas children raised in a religious environment even “approach unfamiliar, fantastical stories flexibly.”

In “Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds,” Kathleen Corriveau, Eva Chen, and Paul Harris demonstrate that children typically have a “sensitivity to the implausible or magical elements in a narrative,” and can determine whether the characters in the narrative are real or fictional by references to fantastical elements within the narrative, such as “invisible sails” or “a sword that protects you from danger every time.”

However, children raised in households in which religious narratives are frequently encountered do not treat those narratives with the same skepticism. The authors believed that these children would “think of them as akin to fairy tales,” judging “the events described in them as implausible or magical and conclude that the protagonists in such narratives are only pretend.”

And yet, “this prediction is likely to be wrong,” because “with appropriate testimony from adults” in religious households, children “will conceive of the protagonist in such narratives as a real person — even if the narrative includes impossible events.”

The researchers took 66 children between the ages of five and six and asked them questions about stories — some of which were drawn from fairy tales, others from the Old Testament — in order to determine whether the children believed the characters in them were real or fictional. 

“Children with exposure to religion — via church attendance, parochial schooling, or both — judged [characters in religious stories] to be real,” the authors wrote. “By contrast, children with no such exposure judged them to be pretend,” just as they had the characters in fairy tales. But children with exposure to religion judged many characters in fantastical, but not explicitly religious stories, to also be real — the equivalent of being incapable of differentiating between Mark Twain’s character Tom Sawyer and an account of George Washington’s life.

This conclusion contradicts previous studies in which children were said to be “born believers,” i.e. that they possessed “a natural credulity toward extraordinary beings with superhuman powers. Indeed, secular children responded to religious stories in much the same way as they responded to fantastical stories — they judged the protagonist to be pretend.”

The researchers also determined that “religious teaching, especially exposure to miracle stories, leads children to a more generic receptivity toward the impossible, that is, a more wide-ranging acceptance that the impossible can happen in defiance of ordinary causal relations.”

18 comments:

BigDonOne said...

Stupid people are more gullible. This study should be re-run and plot Percent_Phonies_Spotted as a function of ... Intelligence Quotient......

Vic78 said...

You mean like this guy?
http://youtu.be/TlQ3DU6dC_Y

Only low iq people think he's worth following:
http://youtu.be/iPXYWhZlj0g

Constructive_Feedback said...

Question Vic78:

When Lawrence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert see BLACK PEOPLE in the "Mission Accomplished Zones" of Philly, Detroit, Cleveland, Camden, Newark, Chicago and Memphis who THINK AND VOTE in a favorable manner but - by all objective measures think and operate in a manner that THE ABOVE LIST OF PEOPLE would call "INGORANT" but for the fact that.......

* They are Black
* They think and vote in a manner that is favorable to the "Post-Racial Progerssive Fundamentalist Alliance)..............


[KEY POINT COMING UP]...................

DO YOU (Vic78) believe that these "Progressive Allies" are ever motivated to TAKE UP THE CAUSE of the "Under-Developed Americanized Negro" - by GOING DIRECTLY TO THEM and motivating them to RISE UP AGAINST THEIR "Black Leadership" - imposing REGULATIONS on these leader's ability to transact their "Black Community Development HOPES" into American POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM or.......................do you think that they are motivated to turn to these leaders and say "GOOD JOB - we have a loyal constituency who will fight against our common White Right-Wing Adversary. Glad that you have kept your congregation from rioting against OUR present local establishment power that we have built up together"?

If the "Ignorant White Right-Wing Republican Enemy" is made the laughing stock within these circles (even with an Ivy League education as Cruz has [note Ivy Leauge does not mean you can't make stupid comments ] IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE that these same forces are not operating an extensive "Passover Scheme" - knowing that it does no benefit to their agenda to OFFEND THE AMERICANIZED NEGRO by insulting the levels of intellectual acumen within his ranks - agree?)

CNu said...

Bro. Feed, what does your comment have to do with the topic of this post?

Vic78 said...

Uh, I was holding up a mirror for dumb Don. He's taking his usual shots at Black folks so I pointed out some of the stupidity coming from his end. Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck both appeal to stupid people's religious sensibilities so I had to point that out to Mr 160+ IQ.

Constructive_Feedback said...

Brother CNu:


My definition of "Religion" amounts to a FRAMEWORK and not necessarily a popularly agreed upon label.


Thus a body of rituals and affirmed beliefs that function to assign a "congregation" of people a given set of beliefs so they can apply their FAITH/HOPE that some FUTURE BENEFITS (Heaven) will be bestowed upon them - IF they REMAIN IN STEP with the religious doctrine fits my definition.


Your story talked about "religion and its fictional characters" that are believed by its "worshipers".


In my observations of the schemes imposed upon masses of people here in America that POLITICS is a "religion". The left has "The Social Justice Heaven", the right has "Xenophobic Nationalized America - standing superior above all others".


It was my contention to Brother Vic78 that his White progressive cohorts are extremely knowledgeable of this "religion" that has been infused within the Black community upon the "ritualistic canopy of 'The Black Church'" (and yes "White churches exhibit the same attributes) so that the people are ultimately made SILENT, unwilling to QUESTION the "Church Doctrine" - even as their reality, over the time of their donation of valuables would test any rational person's faith.

CNu said...

BD at 160+ ?!?!?!?! rotflmbao...., not during this life, not even close.

CNu said...

Politics is expression of the "status-seeking" instinct.We are “political” animals from birth until death. Everything we do or say can be seen as part of lifelong political agendas. Despite decades of scientific warnings, we continue to destroy our life-support system because that behavior is part of our inherited (DNA/RNA) hard wiring. We use scientific warnings, like all inter-animal communications, for cementing group identity and for elevating one’s own status (politics).

Only physical hardship can force us to rewire our mental-political agendas. I am certainly not the first to make the observation, but now, after 20 years of study and debate, I am totally certain. The “net energy principle” guarantees that our global supply lines will collapse.

The rush to social collapse cannot be stopped no matter what is written or said. Humans have never been able to intentionally-avoid collapse because fundamental system-wide change is only possible after the collapse begins.

What about survivors? Within a couple of generations, all lessons learned from the collapse will be lost, and people will revert to genetic baselines. I wish it weren’t so, but all my experience screams “it’s hopeless.” Nevertheless, all we can do is the best we can and carry on...

Vic78 said...

Every framework shouldn't be called a religion. A philosophy would be a better way to define varying frameworks.

BigDonOne said...

Plenty of White Folks voted for Obama (primarily card-swiping left-side of the Bell Curve types...)...........................

CNu said...

lol..., call it whatever you like, ethologically it serves the exact same purpose.We use ________________, like all inter-animal communications, for
cementing group identity and for elevating one’s own status (politics).

Constructive_Feedback said...

WRONG "BIGot DonO Ne"


There is NO CORRELATION to White Votes For Obama and INTELLIGENCE.


You can run through the university community and find a pack of High I.Q. people - that make you look like a dunce - who voted for President Obama because this affirmed their IDEOLOGICAL PREFERENCE.


When you post Stupid Sh#& it further erodes your credibility that was already low.

Tom said...

Absolutely correct.


But in Don's world the "university-educated affluent elitist left" all mutated into "card-swiping low-IQ parasites" about 5-6 years ago. We all quit our jobs as academics at that point in time. Now we just sit out by the mailbox waiting for checks.

CNu said...

These Embedded Confidence Men are merely TAKING ADVANTAGE of the LACK OF
REGULATION WITHIN because they understand that the best way to compel
the "Americanized Negro" to COMPROMISE this INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY is
go show him a BIGGER PLATE full of food and WATCH AS HIS EYES GET BIG
while he fails to note the size of his own stomach - and worse - HIS
NUTRITIONAL NEEDS.I believe you've conflated two demographies here Feed. The "eyes bigger than belly" set is comprised of these incompetent preachers, lawyers, politicians and academics unprepared and unqualified to run anything besides their mouths, who have run everything under their jurisdiction for the past 40 years into or beneath the ground.

It is the failure of these sad miscreants to develop free-standing and viable institutions that has brought about the sorry state (lack of regulation) of what was formerly a community of sorts. Of course, they comply with the instinctual urge to want to be CEO's Officials, and Administrators, all the while lacking the operational knowledge, skill, and ability to do so and simultaneously jealous as hell of those of us who have patiently and organically developed these capabilities.



These empty suits are paranoid and extremely protective of their ill-gotten status turf. Meanwhile, they're in complete and abject denial of their own personal and professional culpability for the failure of the domains that they administer, and this naturally leads them to look outside themselves for a source of their operational "difficulties" When push comes to shove, as it did in New Orleans, necessity requires that a truly competent and organically developed leader be deployed to handle grown folks bidnis. (General Honore)


The source of former institutional integrity (managerial and professional class blacks) abandoned the Jim Crow ghettos decades ago in search of higher status and enlarged economic opportunity and a great many have acquired these objectives. What was left to lord it over po folk has been one of the most abysmal failures of leadership of all time, and only an increasingly tenuous and false sense of racial identity keeps folks from going in hard on the racial services machine parasites.

CNu said...

To Bro. Feed's point though Vic, who exactly has either party put forth as a candidate who is genuinely qualified to get the job done? At the national level, there were calls to enlist Colin Powell, but Alma Powell rightly realized that that brother would've been assassinated quick, fast, and in a hurry had he stepped into a position that is now relegated to talking figurehead status.

Vic78 said...

Al Sharpton's a punk by his own standards. He's on some anti racism crusade but won't say shit when MSNBC does some bullshit. He rides hard against Bill O'Reilly(when they aren't kicking it) but he won't say shit about Chris Matthews having Andrew Sullivan on his channel. And he's recently been outed for snitching. If this guy is leading your movement, it's not going anywhere. There will be a collection plate headed your way.

As a rule I don't trust cats who have perms or Jheri curls after 1990.

Vic78 said...

The Republicans are what they are. I've accepted that they ain't shit. The Democrats have potential but they are in the business of squandering it. It looks like they want to hold on to those Wall St dollars. The real game is the new money and tech. There are people a thousand times better than Hillary with real governing success, but the party bosses want to keep the old shit going. I do understand why they do the shit they do. The real cats would get things done with a WWII kind of seriousness. The old degenerate fuckups just want to keep their seats. I really don't think they'll want to be alive in 20 years if things follow present trends.

CNu said...

lol, I ain't trust them fools in 1981 - how you gone let Jheri Redding practice chemistry on your head? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jheri_Redding Since we're on this topic, let the record show that I'm deeply suspicious of cats sleeping in stocking caps too! http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/EoOYw_lqzMjVNau1EIdYDg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQyMTtweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz03NDk-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/6968399f8730930d500f6a7067009cb4.jpg

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