Almost all of us, at one point or another, were convinced by our parents that a jolly old man with a white beard would bring us presents on Christmas. We would get so excited; set up a tree, milk and cookies, decorate our houses, and never once did we doubt the validity of a man traveling the entire world in one night on his sleigh, carried by reindeer. Now that we’re older, we realize that Santa Clause was all a lie told to us by our parents, but haven’t we always been taught that lying is bad? If you think about it, we are deceived for years and years by carefully thought out plans to hide presents, making sure that we’re sleeping when they are put under the tree, etc. Can this deception impact children negatively while their brains are still developing? The null hypothesis is that lying about Santa Clause has no effect on children and the alternative is that lying about Santa psychologically damages kids.
According to an observational study done by Jacqueline D. Woolley and Maliki Ghossainy, parents and media distorting the truth about things like Santa Clause affects a child’s ability to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s not in the actual world. When they see imagines and videos of something that is not real, like Santa, often times there is skepticism, but because children doubt the validity of these pictures and images, they also begin to be genuinely skeptical of the reality status of information they encounter in the media. For example, when a group of kids we’re shown the documentary, March of the Penguins, a few children were convinced that the movie was made through special effects and animation. This happens because they don’t know what’s real and what’s not on television anymore.
In addition to this, you can also lose your child’s trust and make them suspicious of anything else that authority figure says in the future. In an MIT study, a teacher demonstrated only one function in a three-function toy, and then gave the toy to the children to play with. When the children were asked how effective the teachers instructions were, the kids who knew that it was a three-function toy rated the teacher much lower than the kids who thought that it only had one function, since they knew that the teacher had omitted information. This caused them to be much more suspicious of the teacher.
Possibly the worst effect of lying to children about Santa Clause was found out about in this article, which was that lied to children are much more likely to cheat and lie as well. When parents maintain that honesty is an important value, but lie to their children anyway, it gives the child a sense of comfort about that the fact that lying is okay. They learn from this, and end up doing it themselves.
Something that we might have to worry about is the Texas sharpshooter problem. Santa Clause is a legendary figure of Western culture that millions of children across the U.S. and the world believe in, and the main purpose of parents omitting the truth about him is to make their children happy. If, for over ten years, a child gets happiness from receiving presents once a year, can that really be such a negative thing?
Because of the Texas sharpshooter problem, we cannot accept or reject the null hypothesis. It is an interesting question to keep thinking about, though. Is a little white lie really hurting children more than it is bringing them joy?
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Seriously well written blog with great points. I honestly think it would depend on the kids – some kids learn that santa isn’t real and they barely blink an eye while for other kids it’s the apocalypse. I personally don’t believe that lying about the belief in santa would have such a serious psychological impact, but for feelings of kids considered it doesn’t seem to hurt to play along!
This was a really interesting blog. I think it’s an interesting question because it’s one of those things that parents usually do just because it’s always been done however nobody is really questioning it’s effects. It’s similar to when Andrew taught us about evidence-based and non-evidence-based medicine in that just because something has always been done it does not mean that it’s actually right. Parenting, especially the psychological aspect of it, is an area that I feel needs more evidence-based approaches. For example, like you noted in your article, parents lie about Santa to bring their children joy. But what if the notion of a Santa was instead replaced with everyone gift-giving to show appreciation for the other person. Would that help in the child’s development more, less, or with no difference?
Here are some anecdotal accounts of parents who do and don’t tell their children about Santa and their experience with it.
This was a great blog. I really liked the way you structured the piece and how you used studies to back your claim. I have thought about this question a lot, especially because I have a LOT of young siblings who still believe in Santa. I have also watched them when they find out he isn’t real, and it’s pretty sad. I thought this was great and had solid evidence, and though I don’r think I will stop my kids from believing in Santa, I believe your points are very valid. Here are 7 reasons why you should not lie to kids about Santa!