Discussing Santa Clause with young kids - According to science
Written by Rachel de Barros Oliveira, Ph.D., Candidate McGill University
It’s that time of the year again…it’s the holidays! This includes a question some parents ask themselves every year, how do I approach Santa? If I say that he exists, am I lying to my child? How will my child react if they find out from someone else that he isn’t real? Today we will take religious beliefs and preferences aside and talk about the science behind children’s development of fantasy and reality.
In 1929, Jean Piaget proposed that children would learn how to make a distinction between reality and non-reality only by the age of 12. However, more recent studies show that children are capable to develop these abilities as early as 3 years old. So why do some children believe more strongly in Santa than others? Do their parents tell better stories? Is the child’s age an important factor? The answer might be how we approach the subject with them as well as their age.
Children seek informants who are familiar, knowledgeable, moral, and consistent to help them learn more about everything. Other people’s testimonies shape most of what we know about the world. We don’t need to be a doctor to know that our stomach is located in the abdomen, most adults know that without the need to open a human body to see it for themselves. Learning from testimony implies that we trust what others tell us, but it's important to remember that that trust should not be blind.
Santa Claus is a good example of learning by testimony. But why do some children stop believing in Santa despite adults/parents continuing to present the same testimony? In 2015 Andrew Shtulman and Rachel InKyung Yoo wanted to see how the children’s understanding of physical possibility interfered with their acceptance of adults’ testimony of Santa Claus. They selected children (ages 3 to 9) from daycare and elementary schools (that were familiar with and seemed to believe in Santa) and ask them to perform 3 tasks:
Writing a letter to Santa (questions for Santa) – Kids were asked to help write a letter to Santa, not asking for presents, but rather to seek information. For example, questions about Santa’s elves, his reindeer, or the North Pole.
Answering questions about Santa – Kids were asked if they believed in 5 activities related to Santa and then asked if they think that was true. For example: “I heard that Santa travels around the world in a single night” and then asked, “Do you think that’s true?”
Assessing the physical possibility of extraordinary events (unrelated to Santa) - Children were presented with 10 physically extraordinary events and asked whether they thought each could occur in real life. Five events violated physical laws and should have been judged impossible (ex: walking through a wall, turning applesauce into an apple); the other five violated empirical regularities, but not any physical laws, and should have been judged possible (ex: painting polka dots on an airplane, and finding an alligator under the bed).
In their study, all children claimed that they believed in Santa, but not in the same way. The more kids knew how to differentiate possible from impossible events, the more they would question Santa’s existence. The findings suggest that children’s conceptual abilities could play an important part in their belief in Santa. They also state that their findings don’t suggest that children are more fantasy-prone or naïve because they believe in Santa, but that some children may stop believing in Santa because their understanding of the world changed, and Santa Claus no longer appears credible.
As children grow, they start to question more and more every information. They also understand better how certain things work (how to differentiate an improbable event from an impossible event). Whether you decide to tell your kids Santa’s stories or not, don’t forget a few important points:
They learn by testimony, and they trust us.
Believing in Santa does not make them more naïve.
They are curious by nature, and they can eventually find the out truth for themselves. They will start asking simple questions and accepting simple answers, but the older they get, the harder will be the questions.
If it feels right to you and your family, then talk about Santa. If it doesn’t, that is ok too. How do you approach Santa Claus in your house? Did your kids already find out about Santa? How was their reaction? Let me know if you have any other questions or want to know more about the science involving Santa and fictional characters.