Lorenz Revisited: The Adaptive Nature of Children’s Supernatural Thinking
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Show full item recordcomunitat-uji-handle:10234/9
comunitat-uji-handle2:10234/8034
comunitat-uji-handle3:10234/8637
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12110-010-9099-8 |
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Title
Lorenz Revisited: The Adaptive Nature of Children’s Supernatural ThinkingDate
2010-12Publisher
Springer USISSN
1045-6767Type
info:eu-repo/semantics/articlePublisher version
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12110-010-9099-8Version
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionSubject
Abstract
Certain characteristics of childhood immaturity (e.g., infantile facial features) may have been favored by natural selection to evoke positive feelings in adults. We propose that some aspects of cognitive immaturity ... [+]
Certain characteristics of childhood immaturity (e.g., infantile facial features) may have been favored by natural selection to evoke positive feelings in adults. We propose that some aspects of cognitive immaturity might also endear young children to adults. In two studies, adults rated expressions of mature and immature thinking attributed to children. Immature thinking in which children expressed a supernatural explanation elicited positive affect reactions, whereas other forms of immature thinking, which made no attribution to supernatural causation, were responded to negatively. This pattern was found for parents and others, males and females, American and Spanish college students, and for target children 3 to 9 years of age. We suggest that persistence of supernatural thinking in adulthood causes people to view the expressions of such thinking in children in a positive manner, fostering nurturance of young children who display them. [-]
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Human Nature, v. 21, n. 4, p. 371-392Rights
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010
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http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess
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