A pig as small as a cup? Children’s beliefs about improbable natural items

Abstract

Children often say that completely possible improbable events are impossible, and only gradually begin to affirm their possibility. For instance, children often deny that someone could do unusual things, like eat pickle-flavoured ice cream or have a pet peacock. These denials are surprising since we often think of children as fantastical thinkers. Most previous possibility research has been human-centered, focusing on people and what they can do. Our concern was that this human influence may be restricting what we know about children’s possibility judgements, given their knowledge about human social norms and people’s wants and desires. In this experiment (N=160), we attempt to move away from human-centered possibility judgements and instead ask children about the possibility of natural items. Children aged 4-7 judged whether ordinary, improbable, and impossible natural events could or have ever happened. We found that while children affirm the possibility of ordinary events and deny the possibility of impossible events, they also continue to deny the possibility of improbable events. When comparing children’s results to those of adults (N=197), we find that children are significantly less likely than adults to affirm the possibility of improbable events. Taken together, these results show that children’s denials of improbable events can be taken at face value. Whether asked about human-centered or natural events, children continue to deny the possibility of improbable events.