Curiosity and exploratory behaviour towards possible and impossible events in children and adults

British Journal of Psychology
Eugene Subbotsky

Abstract

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 behavi...Continue Reading

Citations

Jan 1, 2014·Journal of Hand Therapy : Official Journal of the American Society of Hand Therapists·Daniel Harte, Kevin Spencer
Apr 18, 2012·British Journal of Psychology·Ian G J DawsonMichelle A Luke
Oct 14, 2011·Risk Analysis : an Official Publication of the Society for Risk Analysis·Ian G J DawsonMichelle A Luke
Oct 19, 2016·The British Journal of Educational Psychology·Simon A MossMartin Boland
Mar 21, 2020·PeerJ·Richard Wiseman, Caroline Watt

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