Children’s attributions of belief to humans and God: cross-cultural evidence

Nicola Knight; Paulo  Sousa; Justin L. Barrett; Scott Atran

doi:10.1207/s15516709cog2801_6

Children’s attributions of belief to humans and God: cross-cultural evidence

Nicola Knight, Paulo Sousa, Justin L. Barrett, Scott Atran

Institute of Cognition and Culture

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

112 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The capacity to attribute beliefs to others in order to understand action is one of the mainstays of human cognition. Yet it is debatable whether children attribute beliefs in the same way to all agents. In this paper, we present the results of a false-belief task concerning humans and God run with a sample of Maya children aged 4–7, and place them in the context of several psychological theories of cognitive development. Children were found to attribute beliefs in different ways to humans and God. The evidence also speaks to the debate concerning the universality and uniformity of the development of folk-psychological reasoning.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	117-126
Number of pages	10
Journal	Cognitive Science
Volume	28
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog2801_6
Publication status	Published - Jan 2004

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Language and Linguistics
Artificial Intelligence
Cognitive Neuroscience
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Human Factors and Ergonomics
Linguistics and Language

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abstract = "The capacity to attribute beliefs to others in order to understand action is one of the mainstays of human cognition. Yet it is debatable whether children attribute beliefs in the same way to all agents. In this paper, we present the results of a false-belief task concerning humans and God run with a sample of Maya children aged 4–7, and place them in the context of several psychological theories of cognitive development. Children were found to attribute beliefs in different ways to humans and God. The evidence also speaks to the debate concerning the universality and uniformity of the development of folk-psychological reasoning.",

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AB - The capacity to attribute beliefs to others in order to understand action is one of the mainstays of human cognition. Yet it is debatable whether children attribute beliefs in the same way to all agents. In this paper, we present the results of a false-belief task concerning humans and God run with a sample of Maya children aged 4–7, and place them in the context of several psychological theories of cognitive development. Children were found to attribute beliefs in different ways to humans and God. The evidence also speaks to the debate concerning the universality and uniformity of the development of folk-psychological reasoning.

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Children’s attributions of belief to humans and God: cross-cultural evidence

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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