Curiosity and exploratory behaviour towards possible and impossible events in children and adults.
In four experiments with 4-, 6-, and 9-year-old children and adults, the hypothesis was tested that, all other conditions being equal, a novel and unusual event elicits stronger curiosity and exploratory behaviour if its suggested explanation involves an element of the supernatural than if it does not (the impossible over possible effect - the I/P effect). Participants were shown an unusual phenomenon (a spontaneous disintegration of a physical object in an apparently empty box) framed in the context of either a magical (the impossible event) or scientific (the possible event) explanation. In the verbal trial, participants showed a clear understanding of the difference between the effect of genuine magic and the effect of a trick. In the behavioural trial, both children and adults showed the I/P effect. They were more likely to run the risk of losing their valuable objects in order to explore the impossible event than the possible event. Follow-up experiments showed that the I/P effect couldn't be explained as an artifact of the different degrees of cost of exploratory behaviour in the possible and impossible conditions or as a result of misinterpreting magic as tricks. The I/P effect emerged when the cost of exploratory behaviour was moderate and disappeared when the cost was perceived as too high or too low.
Subbotsky
Eugene
E
Psychology Department, University of Lancaster, Lancaster LA1 4YF, UK. subbotsky@lancaster.ac.uk
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D013404:Suggestion