title: Can that really happen? Children's knowledge about the reality status of fantastical events in television.
abstract: Although popular children's cartoons are replete with fantastical events, we know little about whether children understand that these events are fantastical rather than real. In Study 1, 54 children ages 4 to 6 years and 18 adults were shown 10 real and 10 fantastical events portrayed in 4s video clips from a popular cartoon. After viewing each clip, participants were asked to judge the reality status of the event and to explain their judgments. Results indicated that even 4-year-olds have a fairly good understanding of fantastical events in animated cartoons but that they underestimate the reality status of real events in such cartoons. In Study 2, 35 4- to 6-year-olds and 18 adults watched video clips of 10 real and 10 fantastical events performed by real people from a Chinese television show. Once again, 4-year-olds underestimated the reality status of real events shown on television. However, against the "real" backdrop in this study, 4-year-olds also judged nearly half of the fantastical events to be real. The implications for children's reality-fantasy discrimination and their media viewing are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300074, China; School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, Hubei 430079, China. Electronic address: huilipsy@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Boguszewski
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA.
authors.forename: Angeline S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lillard
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005201:Fantasy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D013690:Television
keywords: Cognitive development; Fantasy; Justifications; Preschooler; Reality judgments; Television