What Do Invisible Friends Know? Imaginary Companions, God, and Theory of Mind.
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| Title: | What Do Invisible Friends Know? Imaginary Companions, God, and Theory of Mind. |
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| Authors: | Wigger, J.Bradley (AUTHOR), Paxson, Katrina (AUTHOR), Ryan, Lacey (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. Jan-Mar2013, Vol. 23 Issue 1, p2-14. 13p. 2 Graphs. |
| Subjects: | Imaginary companions, God, Theory of mind, Friendship, Cognitive development, Anthropomorphism |
| Abstract: | Theory of mind (ToM) research has been carried out in relation to a variety of human and nonhuman agents such as parents, friends, God, Mayan forest spirits, and animals. The present study adds a new agent to the list—the imaginary/invisible friend. Three types of ToM tasks were administered to 36 children, ages 2 to 8, who had invisible friends at the time of the tasks: occluded picture, background knowledge, and surprising contents tasks. The knowledge attributed to imaginary companions was compared to the knowledge attributed to God, as well as to a human and to a dog. Results showed that younger children tended to attribute knowledge to all agents, including imaginary friends. Older children treated God differently from all other agents, but the invisible friend was also treated differently from the human and the dog. Implications regarding cognitive development and anthropomorphism are considered, as well as for the in-between character of invisible friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of International Journal for the Psychology of Religion is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | Theory of mind (ToM) research has been carried out in relation to a variety of human and nonhuman agents such as parents, friends, God, Mayan forest spirits, and animals. The present study adds a new agent to the list—the imaginary/invisible friend. Three types of ToM tasks were administered to 36 children, ages 2 to 8, who had invisible friends at the time of the tasks: occluded picture, background knowledge, and surprising contents tasks. The knowledge attributed to imaginary companions was compared to the knowledge attributed to God, as well as to a human and to a dog. Results showed that younger children tended to attribute knowledge to all agents, including imaginary friends. Older children treated God differently from all other agents, but the invisible friend was also treated differently from the human and the dog. Implications regarding cognitive development and anthropomorphism are considered, as well as for the in-between character of invisible friends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 10508619 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/10508619.2013.739059 |
