It suggests that young children can tell the difference between someone pretending to be a fantasy character but still believe that character really exists.
Researchers chartered psychologist Dr Louise Bunce from the University of Winchester and Professor Paul Harris from Harvard University set out to find out whether pre-school children believed in fictional characters and whether they could distinguish between a person just dressing up pretending to be a character from the real version of the character.
They interviewed 60 three- to five-year-old children and 20 adults and showed them pictures of well-known TV fictional characters, including Bob the Builder and Postman Pat, alongside pictures of people dressing up as these characters and asked them whether they ‘lived in the real world’ or whether they were the ‘real’ fictional character.
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