Debunking the Santa myth: The process and aftermath of becoming skeptical about Santa

Two studies examined the process and aftermath of coming to disbelieve in the myth of Santa Claus. In Study 1, 48 children ages 6-15 answered questions about how they discovered Santa was not real and how the discovery made them feel, and 44 of their parents shared their perspectives and how they promoted Santa. In Study 2, 383 adults reflected on their experiences shifting to disbelief in Santa Claus. In both studies, the average age of disbelief was around 8, but with significant variability. Most participants reported testimony from others contributed to their disbelief, and some reported skepticism as a result of either experience (e.g., observation) or logical reasoning. About a third of children and half of adults reported some negative emotions upon discovering the truth. Higher levels of parental Santa promotion were associated with experiencing some negative emotions upon discovering the truth in both studies. Additionally, adults who reported feeling only negative emotions tended to be older when they discovered the truth, more likely to have reported learning the truth abruptly, and more likely to have reported learning the truth through testimony. That said, experiences of negative emotions were generally short-lived, and the vast majority of both children and adults reported they would celebrate Santa with their own children or were already doing so. Implications of these findings for how to approach children's transition to skepticism regarding Santa are discussed, including timing, the role of parents, and popular notions of discovery for children's trust toward their parents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Do embodiment and fictionality affect young children's learning?

Preschool-aged children can learn from fictional, pretend, and imaginative activities. However, many studies showing this learning involve children as physically passive while consuming fictional narratives rather than as actively, physically engaged. Physical engagement may add to cognitive processes already at play when watching narratives, making children more likely to retain or understand information. Children's natural pretend involves physical movement, role play, and embodiment. To test learning from embodied pretense, we conducted two studies in which we experimentally manipulated whether children were physically passive while consuming narratives or physically actively engaged with them through embodied pretend play using puppets or costumes. In Study 1, children were shown/engaged in television-based narratives, all of which contained fantastical content. In Study 2, children were shown/engaged in lab-created stories, some of which contained fantastical elements. We measured children's learning and perceptions of realism. In Study 1, neither perception of fictionality nor embodiment immediately affected learning, although older preschoolers learned more than younger preschoolers. In Study 2, neither perception nor presence of fantastical content affected learning, but embodiment did. Children learned more from both embodied conditions compared with the physically passive condition. We also included 2-week follow-up tests of recall and found that although children retained very little, embodiment still affected retention in both studies. Overall, children did not use realism judgments to differentiate learning. These findings show the complexity of different elements involved in children's learning from pretense and the need to understand what elements affect learning from fantastical and embodied pretend play and stories.