Publisher's Synopsis
Challenges the generally accepted work of Jean Piaget on children's understanding of reality, that by the age of two years children assume that an object hidden in a box will necessarily remain there unless someone tampers with it. Here the author demonstrates that many children and some adults will often accept mysterious disappearances and creations, treating them not as tricks or illusions but as actual occurrences. His analysis shows that alongside our everyday beliefs in object permanence, we also have a set of quasi-magical beliefs that can be activated by appropriate actions or situations. The prevalence and acceptability of these beliefs will vary from culture to culture, and will be widespread among pre-literate peoples but less obvious among the citizens of advanced industrial countries. The author also looks at other taken-for-granted concepts, such as the distinction between inanimate and animate.;The work, illustrated with experimental material, has implications for the study of both child development and the psychology of human beliefs. It attacks our complacent and often culturally biased faith in the nature of reality.
