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Beliefs about unobservable scientific and religious entities are transmitted via subtle linguistic cues in parental testimony

McLoughlin, Niamh, Jacob, Ciara, Samrow, Petal, Corriveau, Kathleen H. (2021) Beliefs about unobservable scientific and religious entities are transmitted via subtle linguistic cues in parental testimony. Journal of Cognition & Development, . ISSN 1524-8372. E-ISSN 1532-7647. (doi:10.1080/15248372.2020.1871351) (KAR id:87961)

Abstract

We explored the role of parental testimony in children’s developing beliefs about the ontological status of typically unobservable phenomena. US parents and their 5- to 7-year-old children (N = 25 dyads) separately rated their confidence in the existence of scientific and religious unobservable entities (e.g., germs, angels), and were invited to engage in an unmoderated dyadic conversation about the entities. Both parents and children were more confident in the existence of the scientific entities compared to the religious entities. Parental religiosity predicted the strength of their belief in the religious entities, and these beliefs were positively associated with their children’s judgements in the domain of religion. We coded parental testimony produced during the unmoderated conversation for a number of subtle linguistic cues that convey their confidence and prevailing beliefs in an entity’s existence. The results revealed consistent crossdomain differences: parents expressed more uncertainty, were more likely to mention variation in people’s beliefs and make explicit claims about the ontological status of the religious, as compared to the scientific entities. However, with increasing religiosity, parents produced fewercues to uncertainty, mentioned belief variation less often, and were more likely to make claims of endorsement when talking about the religious unobservables. Importantly, the pattern of linguistic cues in parental testimony was significantly associated with children’s ontological judgements. The present findings have implications for understanding the socio-cultural mechanisms by which confidence in the existence of invisible agents and processes develops in childhood.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1080/15248372.2020.1871351
Uncontrolled keywords: Concepts, parent-child interaction, social cognition
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: Niamh MCLOUGHLIN
Date Deposited: 07 May 2021 11:53 UTC
Last Modified: 08 Feb 2022 00:00 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/87961 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

McLoughlin, Niamh.

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