Children's Developing Concepts of Ordinary and Extraordinary Minds: The Roles of Intuitive Theories and Cultural Input.

Abstract

Individuals worldwide entertain ideas about beings with extraordinary mental capacities that far surpass ordinary human limits. How and when do such concepts develop? Two theories have been proposed to account for this development. A preparedness hypothesis states that young children are prepared to understand all minds as infallible, perhaps omniscient. A contrasting anthropomorphism hypothesis states that children's understanding of extraordinary minds builds upon their initial understanding of ordinary, limited minds. I assess these hypotheses in three studies. In Study 1, secularly-schooled preschoolers completed theory-of-mind tasks about the mental states of contrasting agents, including ordinary humans, God, and Mr. Smart—whom children were taught "knows everything." Consistent with an anthropomorphism hypothesis, 4-year-olds who were beginning to attribute mental limits to ordinary humans (e.g., ignorance) attributed those limits to God and to Mr. Smart. Only 5-year-olds differentiated between humans' fallible minds and extraordinary beings' less fallible minds. In Study 2, religiously-schooled preschoolers completed identical tasks, revealing a similar developmental pattern: 4-year-olds beginning to attribute certain limits to humans also attributed those limits to God. However, religiously-schooled 4-year-olds did not attribute those limits to Mr. Smart, whose powers they had just been instructed about. Across both studies, children who were more knowledgeable about God attributed to extraordinary beings less fallible capacities, but this was true only among children who understood ordinary humans' mental fallibilities. Using different tasks with preschoolers, elementary-school children, and adults, Study 3 revealed that older preschoolers grant all-knowing beings knowledge of many (though not all) domains, including knowledge that ordinary people cannot easily acquire. Understanding the depth of all-knowing beings' knowledge (i.e., knowledge of everything within a domain) was not robust until early adulthood. Older preschoolers' exposure to ideas about God predicted attributions of broader knowledge to a new all-knowing being. Results from Studies 2 and 3 suggest that, after developing a representational theory-of-mind, socio-cultural input can facilitate an appreciation for extraordinary minds. Study 3 additionally identifies other cognitive competencies that support an understanding of omniscience. Collectively, these studies reveal that young children are clearly not prepared to understand extraordinary mental capacities, but instead such understanding develops progressively throughout childhood.