Invisible entities pose a challenge for children's learning as children can't learn about these via their own observation. By implication, children rely on testimony to develop an understanding of invisible entities. Supporting this conclusion, children's judgments of invisible entities, including supernatural entities, align with the testimony surrounding these entities (e.g., Payir et al., 2024). For example, supernatural entities that are endorsed in conversations with young children, such as Santa and God, are judged as "real" by children, whereas supernatural entities not endorsed in discourse with young children, such as mermaids and monsters, are judged as "not real." What is missing in current literature is how children organize their belief in supernatural entities: Do they view them as the residents of the same supernatural neighborhood, or do they put them in separate categories? Intrigued by this question, this study focuses on how children link two endorsed beings-Santa and God. If adults are right, these two exhibit similar features: Both are omniscient, enforce moral norms, and engage in "magical" acts (Clark, 1995). However, adults eventually stop endorsing Santa but continue to endorse God. Once children discover that Santa is not real, what do they think about God?
There are three possibilities: 1) Children's belief in God can be strengthened if Santa serves as a starting point for belief in religious supernatural entities (Barrett, 2012). 2) Discovering the truth about Santa may lead children to doubt God if children see all supernatural entities as the resident of the same neighborhood, and learning that Santa is not real leads to a domino effect where children become skeptical of all supernatural beings (e.g., Sharon & Woolley, 2004). 3) Disbelief in Santa may have no effect on belief in God if children put endorsed fantastical beings, such as Santa, and endorsed religious beings, such as God, in different categories.
To explore these possibilities, we interviewed thirty-five 4- to 12-year-old (M=8.5, SD=2.73, 23 females) children from the US about their beliefs in invisible beings. Next, parents completed a survey to help contextualize children's responses. This study will extend research on how children conceptualize the invisible. It will also contribute to the broader discussions on the origins of supernatural beliefs: Do humans have a natural tendency to believe in supernatural entities, or do they learn to believe in them?