Kids Aren't As Gullible As You Think

[@SciShowPsych]

This video is brought to you by the Child and Teen Checkups program of the Minnesota Department of Health. If you live in Minnesota, learn more at Freechildcheckups.com. If you live somewhere else in the United States go to www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/epsdt/index.html

[@wadetisthammer3612]

Minnesota! F-yeah!

[@derp-7274]

Yea if your watching channels like this im liturtly 11 years old

[@joshuastreet8664]

@Anna Heebsh Same, like wtf lol. Thought it was a random KZbin channel and they know where I live.

[@atonedudeatsnotsubscribed8313]

Hello everyone I'm a child

[@renshedd_960]

HOLY h E c K MINNESOTA ISNT MENTIONED ANYWHERE BUT wOah-

[@brittanypereira9172]

I just thought my parents truly believed in santa/tooth fairy/princesses and i didn’t wanna be the one to break the news to THEM.

[@cubeofcheese5574]

Haha

[@wereallpinkinside8452]

😂😂 mad

[@ghaliyahansari1557]

😂😂😂

[@Elselle]

Haha but where did you think the presents came from if not from your parents?

[@ADerpyReality]

I'm like that with God.

[@seatbelttruck]

I wonder if the kids who said their pencil was real were answering that way because they thought that's what the adult wanted to hear. That's a notorious problem when asking kids questions. Treating kids like they're dumb bugs the heck out of me. I have a pretty good memory and can remember back to age two. Sure, I had some silly beliefs here and there, but I was never dumb. And most of my silly beliefs were reasoned, too, just from incorrect or incomplete data.

[@kindlin]

Remember back to age 2? Like, actual details? That is pretty odd (odd question, do you remember potty training? lol). I may have a memory or two of my very young years, but my first real memories are more like at 5-6, which is typical.

[@camelopardalis84]

@@kindlin My father moved out when I was pretty much exactly three and a half years old and I remember wondering either if he would or why he didn't take the floor of his room with him. It's possible that I remember that because it was a big thing. But I also remember my mother telling me that I wouldn't start kindergarten in spring but in autumn because the starting time had been moved back and then I was also only four years and three months old at most.

[@seatbelttruck]

​@@kindlin I do, actually. My mom bribed me with m&m's and my cousins were very enthusiastic encouraging me to learn, because if they helped me remember to go, they got m&m's too. Most of my memories are when I was getting close to three, though. The most vivid is the night before my third birthday. I remember lying in bed and my mom reminding me that "tomorrow I would be a big girl, and big girls don't need binkies (pacifiers)." I proceeded to suck on my clothes and hair for YEARS afterwards, LOL. Most others are more memories of remembering. I don't explicitly remember going to my cousin's pool-party when I was two, for example, but I do remember a time when I did remember, and can reconstruct the memory from that.

[@AmeliaOak]

My son really does remember things from when he was 2 (he’s 5 now). It actually scared me when he asked me if I remembered certain things from that time, because I had never spoken of them. I knew it wasn’t normal to have memories from before you turn 4 so I was pretty shocked

[@seatbelttruck]

@@AmeliaOak infantile amnesia doesn't set in right away. Kids still have working memories. Some of them will probably fade with time, but he might keep a few to adulthood like I did.

[@werelemur1138]

I told my parents I believed in Santa for YEARS after I figured out he wasn't real, because I didn't want to risk them not giving me the extra presents "from Santa."

[@met3o708]

savage boi

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

mad lad lol

[@AtarahDerek]

I grew up poor. I figured out the whole Santa and Easter Bunny thing early on, and my parents could tell immediately that I was playing along for my younger siblings. I liked helping with the magic of Easter and Christmas. It was kind of understood in our house that once you aged out of the magic, you had a responsibility to help keep it alive for those who hadn't aged out yet. I've always believed in the spirit of Santa, and I believe it genuinely originated with the historical St. Nicholas of Myra. I think part of the spirit of Santa is keeping the wonder of Christmas alive in kids for as long as possible. And if part of that wonder includes a fat guy in a red suit delivering presents all over the world in one night, so be it. They'll enjoy learning the historicity of St. Nicholas in the future, and how his generosity and courage inspired his legends. For now, let them have Santa as they know him.

[@human_bing]

Same

[@kaygabs3043]

same lol

[@marcusrosales3344]

I think it's more surprising how stupid some people think kids are.

[@sandreid87]

Not unique to kids. Many people just think other people in general are stupid. The height of arrogance, really

[@VariantAEC]

@@sandreid87 Then you interact with a large swath of people and discover... Many people are pretty darn stupid. It's unfortunate but that seems to be the reality. Passing some simple tests like these really fail to cover some other issues.

[@Cythil]

A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals... Yes I just quoted Men in Black... >_>

[@marcusrosales3344]

@@sandreid87 I know what you mean... Many people look at others as empty shells of a human being I think. They don't realize everyone has their own experiences and internal dialogue, which leads them to think they can just feed you whatever and you'll take it. Alot of people of average intelligence do this in my experience, but the stupid ones always do.

[@AmeliaOak]

Some people talk to my three year old as if she doesn’t understand a word being said to her. I make sure to inform them that she isn’t a baby.

[@mrdrprof8402]

I've always said kids are far smarter than they're given credit for. If you talk to child (and actually *listen*) you'll realized they're far more intuitive and insightful than many would expect. They're not dumb, they're arguably roughly as intelligent as adults, they just have far less experience to draw from. The reason a child can't pick up differential calculus at a very young age isn't because they're not smart enough but rather they're missing like a decade of the math it's built upon. Yet we keep judging them based on the massive knowledge bases and frameworks adults have which don't take into account their experiences. Children deserve to have their intellects respected too!

[@bobthegoat7090]

I agree that kids are smarter than many think but believing that a kid could do differential calculus is just not correct. You can't actually believe that

[@marios1861]

@@bobthegoat7090 it's definitely possible but you'd have to sloppily zip through a lot of other things.

[@MontyBeda]

I remember having hour long discussion with a seven-year old after first year of school and basically it was philosophical discussion about necessity to abide to society expectations and societal rules imposed upon everybody in that society and if that is good or bad thing for people in the society and if it can be changed. We did not used any such fancy words as it was about issues of having to listen to teacher and why you should or should not listen to your teacher and how you interact with schoolmates and why the kids are forced to sit still for so many hours every day and just used simpler words which only prolonged the discussion but never dumbed it down and it was really great experience to have such discussion with a kid and how strongly they can view and argument in such respects if they want to. So kids are not dumb, it is just the experience that comes with time and also sometimes vocabulary that makes you dismiss them because they use just simple words so they must be simple themselves.

[@lilahb.8698]

There is always a level of development and a level of wisdom. We have childhood amnesia, after all, because our brains are developing in that time frame and forget things. We’re not really done developing until 25 anyways. So even with a decade of knowledge crammed into a 5 yr old, they probably wouldn’t have the capability to use it, simply because their brains aren’t developed yet. On the other hand, once most development is done, it does come down to a lack of experience. Teens, while still developing, can have much of the same reasoning skills as adults given the right circumstances where they learn that knowledge. Less experienced people, basically. Wisdom in just knowing how to do things without ever having done a specific thing is what old people get-that mass of experience leads to being able to cobble together new solutions out of experience (even if that experience isn’t entirely remembered). But just because kids aren’t developed all the way doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk to them about more complicated things. It’s called building on concepts, and you can start at a level that’s appropriate to their knowledge. Then build. It’s how we all learn and develop. There was a dad who posed complex political, cultural, and social issues to his daughter who enjoyed being a princess. For example, he would explain that the bears need to move into her kingdom because their forest burned down, but the citizens in her kingdom don’t want to host the bears or something. They can comprehend a lot of given the right stepping point, but it would be silly to assume that they could do anything if they somehow had the experience crammed in their brains, because their brains just don’t work at their full capacity yet.

[@mrscarter6279]

MrDrProf yup. My 2 year never ceases to amaze me with how bright he is.

[@MichiruEll]

I remember meeting a child psychologist who asked me to make up a story. I specifically remember making up a story that would be "appropriate" for my age instead of the stories my brain was actually thinking up.

[@allisond.46]

What was the difference?

[@stormylermeny2419]

When I was around 5 I lied and said my favorite color was pink because I knew that saying orange was going to invite more questions about “why” and it was easier to just give the standard “girl like pink” answer

[@RocketJo86]

​@@allisond.46 I'm not the op, but given my experience with elementary students I guess the difference would likely be the gore level. My students are fascinated by monsters and violence (both boys and girls!). They freely make up stories of this kind with me. But the stories they write down for their school teachers are all far more tame and somewhat more phantastical. I even had one boy telling me he hated writing stories - which he perceived as fairytales in general - just to show me his novel in progress a few weeks later. What he wrote in his free time was much more down to earth than what he'd ever written for school.

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

I heard about a study where the researchers were playing along with a pretend game with the kids. But they were taking it totally seriously to make it seem like they really believed the pretend thing was true. Most of the kids stopped them eventually to make sure they knew it was just pretend. I don't remember enough details to find it easily on google, unfortunately.

[@fantasticmisterpig]

My nephew has done this with me, at around five. I was playing with him and acted as if I'd been shot by his gun. And yeah, he stopped to remind me that it was pretend. When I told him I was only pretend hurt, he was satisfied and we kept going.

[@vvvvveroeverythingtodo]

Yeah my 4 years old nephew do that too a lot, when we are playing to be robots if he gets annoyed at me pretending to be a robot he just tell me to stop that I'm just a human 😅

[@geeksthename]

My niece does this to me all the time, i always act totally shocked like i only just found out that unicorns weren’t real or that my five year old niece wasn’t actually a Doctor doing a procedure on me

[@IceMetalPunk]

@@vvvvveroeverythingtodo Ah, but little does he know that you actually ARE a robot just PRETENDING to be human! :D

[@IceMetalPunk]

@@geeksthename Psh, if she's not a real doctor, then how did she fix your boo-boo? :P

[@johnopalko5223]

When I was about five years old, my folks and I were at a Christmas party at a relative's house. The big event of the evening was when Santa Claus appeared and passed out gifts to all the cousins. When it was my turn, I climbed onto Santa's lap, took a good look, and loudly announced, "That's not Santa! That's Uncle Jimmy!" I never heard the end of that one.

[@amateurastronomer9463]

My family still never really forgiven me for telling my nieces and nephews that Santa got hit by a plane and died. This was in 1985, and they still make a point of mentioning it.

[@johnopalko5223]

@@amateurastronomer9463 Ouch! You're mean! 😊

[@Sollace]

"The big event of the evening was when Santa Claus appeared and passed out-" OH MY GOD "- gifts to all the cousins." Oh, thank god...

[@johnopalko5223]

@@Sollace LOL! That would have been interesting,wouldn't it?

[@Sollace]

@@johnopalko5223 Yeah, definitely! XD

[@oliverwilson11]

I always thought the conclusions of the piaget conservation experiments were dodgy for this reason. Kids, especially younger ones, are likely to give the answer they think the adult wants even if they don't necessarily think it's true.

[@marsishere1121]

The moment I began to think Santa wasn’t real as a child I went into full investigation mode, at a 8 year olds level. I looked into every place I could that could fit the presents I asked for, listened in at my parents talking the night before, and when my parents noticed this, they tried a trick where they got soot from the fireplace, sprinkled it around the living room and tree, and put footprints in the soot. I told my older brother about it and we ended up investigating ever boot and shoe in the house and found the matching prints, my dads wellies. The next day we acted as normal until I unwrapped the present I really wanted, and said “Thanks dad!”. My brother then explained it all, along with some neat evidence that there’s no way Santa could fly around the Earth in the time it took. They weren’t really expecting it.

[@acninee]

So what did all of you grow up to be? You're obviously quite intelligent and good critical thinkers.

[@marsishere1121]

@@acninee my brother's the smart one, I'm getting into films and screenwriting

[@SharkSnoot]

Smart kids who realize Santa isn't real keep up the facade for extra gifts 😏

[@m4nc0o]

Ikr woke up right when my parents were putting the presents under the tree when I was 7

[@maccychee3858]

I once tried to confuse my parents to get more money from the tooth fairy. Didn't work because I hadn't put any points into charisma yet

[@omniscientomnipresent5500]

That's true, I remember doing this

[@paixmk1980]

I can confirm I do it

[@CanthusOfCandE]

@@m4nc0o similar thing happened to me but my presents from father Christmas were put into a knitted stocking in my room. I woke up to a silhouette of my mum at that stocking and immediately plunged my face into the pillow. So a 7 year old me knew well enough that a) he wasn't real and 2) if my mum found out I knew all the previously FC's presents would just stop coming. In my family these were a couple of small toys (smallest lego set for example), sweets (as a kid I basically only had sweets on special occasions) and 4 bits of fruit. So I knew even after just waking that I need to make a quick decision. Only downside to this story is how long it took her to confront me with the news he wasn't real as it started to either reflect how stupid she thought I was or how embarrassing it was to admit it was all a lie she had been peddling for all those years...the stocking just moved downstairs for future uses as an FYI. Lesson to parents, children will lie to you for years to get additional free stuff, regardless of how good you think they are.

[@Luchoedge]

This reminds me of a phrase I really like (translated from spanish) "he/she's a kid, not an idiot!"

[@mothlastname2413]

Lucho-Core I love that so much! I hate when people assume im a moron because im under 18

[@rochambeau7197]

@@mothlastname2413 i'm 10 but most people don't want to play with me because they think i'll yell and scream, mess up their game, and be rude/dumb. it's really annoying.

[@Monody512]

At least when I was a kid, I internally recognized two levels of "real". 1: Real to me. 2: Real to everyone. When trying to explain it to rational adults, it's difficult… but it made perfect sense to my child brain, and still does somewhere deep down in my mind now. That idea of "Real to only me =/= not real" could be something interesting for psychologists to study, as it might be an important component of adult concepts like faith.

[@javi7636]

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" -Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

[@camelopardalis84]

You most like just didn't know what "reality" is. Just like any neuroscientist.

[@Starfloofle]

"Real to me" as an explanation for faith makes a lot of sense, thinking about it that way... Humans are pretty good at kind of twisting their own perceived reality to be one way or another. Sometimes that can get out of hand terribly, and that might be why genuinely horrible people are often inconsolable and can't view themselves as doing anything wrong. ...ugh, I hate when people do that kind of thing.

[@Hanyousan1661]

@@Starfloofle "Everyone is the good guy in their own story..."

[@AtarahDerek]

That's not faith. When you observe the world around you, including what could've happened differently in the past and what can potentially happen in the future; when you take the sum of all human knowledge into account and recognize that even as the collective human race we are far from omniscient, you come to the very logical and reasonable conclusion that there IS a reality beyond what you can currently see. THAT is faith. Pursuing that reality validates your faith.

[@Emsarrev]

Nice try EA, but we're still gonna ban those lootboxes.

[@71.218-westshed]

LOL

[@evenstar4076]

Good one!

[@TerrariaGolem]

This was good

[@danielsurvivor1372]

Tf2 gamers: Ight, guess my game will die then

[@naofg]

I taught preschool for a few years, and something I noticed with the kids I taught at the time was that the 2 to 3-year-olds all seemed to genuinely believe in things like that a puppet was really alive and talking or that the Easter bunny had been to our school and left a letter. Then at around 4 most of them would start to voice their disbelief at things like those. And by the time they were around 5 they would simply enjoy and go along with the stories and fantasies, playing pretend and acting like they believed in those things.

[@jonkeuviuhc1641]

I think my childhood would have been better if adults treathed me like someone inteligent but who needed things explained to them.

[@emberhermin52]

You know, like a child!

[@AnimilesYT]

Maybe the kids don't quite know the difference between "what do you think is in the box?" and "what do you think was in the box?". When they research these things and ask questions to children there might be a lot of miscommunication due to their underdeveloped language skills. They could think the correct thing, but if they understand the question incorrectly or their answer doesn't match what they think, then we assume they can't grasp the idea whereas in fact they just need more time to learn the language. (I'm trying to learn a different language, and I'm quite intrigued by the differences in how children learn a language versus how adults learn a language. And of course by all other kinds of differences in the learning process and in the languages themselves)

[@Starfloofle]

The "language barrier" exists in development too, yeah. I do wonder just how much it plays into studies, although kids are usually pretty good at picking up on what means what a lot faster than adults due to their rapid learning speed that all of us are jealous of >.>

[@acninee]

Yeah, I don't know about the rest of the world, but I figured out pretty early that boxes got repurposed on a regular basis in my household.

[@driftingdruid]

@@Starfloofle though the language barrier is a lot more difficult considering kids with learning disabilities...

[@M_IAWIA]

I remember when my sister was little and scared of monsters after our brother had scared her (she was 5 or 6 I think), I used her own logic against her. I found a big quartz I had in my room and gave it to her telling her it had magic properties. She didn't believe me at first, but I told her "well, it might not be true, but if monsters are real this magic is real too." She couldn't deny that logic and was never scared in the presence of that stone. Later, when she started getting scared of the monster under the bed, we put a small cute monster plush under her bed, so she would know the monster living there, and know that he is actually really nice. She knows they are most like not real anyways, but the fears don't go away by thinking it's not real. Finding logical reasons for why you don't have to worry even if they were real is really helpful to a young mind.

[@bloodmoonlps]

Listen, kids just do the things they do because they are expected to so. They see what kind of behavior is said to be normal for them so they act according to it.

[@kariscoyne1886]

"study shows children closely related to people"

[@BathroomCube]

hey its a small addition but i really appreciate you making the clarification that the knowledge you're speaking about may not apply to those on the autism spectrum. I'm autistic and i often wonder if some psychological phenomenons would apply to me.

[@kf10147]

ssundiall yeah same here tho I wish they could go into how our development of theory of mind is different

[@stingrae919]

ssundiall I’m autistic as well and I also really liked how she clarified that our brains are a little different.

[@thederpy165]

Shannon Munroe it’s called a “knob”

[@thederpy165]

Shannon Munroe Oh i actually don’t know what that means

[@AHICmybeloathed]

@@thederpy165 ok, so there's this thing that comes in 2 pieces. if you put it on a doorknob it will be bigger than it meaning you can't turn the knob without taking it off. Parents get them to keep their kids from getting into rooms they shouldn't be in, to open them you push on the 2 indented parts and they come off

[@o76923]

Part of our personal narrative is that we have changed, grown, gotten better with time, etc. That belief is strengthened by imagining our past selves as worse than we actually were because that means we've made more progress. Combine that with the assumption that other people are like us and it's really easy to conclude we were gullible as kids. That's before you even get into social norms reinforcing that belief.

[@aliceignis]

That thing where kids assume others have the same information as them is interesting and kind of holds on in later years... My 5th-graders have very different foreknowledge. Over and over again some pupils call other kids "stupid", because they think e.g. that dolphins are fish ("Vertebrate classes" is not a topic in school before 5th grade). That makes me mad. I ask them, where they got their information from - of course they didn't studied dolphins or even came to that conclusion themselves. Someone told them! And if nobody told them before, they wouldn't know it now either! I know, it has very little to do with the topic of this video, but it remindet me of that.

[@asherscottL]

I remember when I was really little, I didn't believe in Santa Claus. However, my brother did. So, I went along with the story. I felt so socially pressured to believe in Santa that when my parents finally told us that Santa didn't exist, I felt the need to pretend to be upset. However, I really wasn't. And to this day, I'm still upset about my reaction to Santa Claus. I wish I had made it clear that I wasn't gullible. I always found it very suspicious that Santa's wrapping paper was the same as my parents. Or, that the years that we were really poor we got very little presents, while so many of my friends got really amazing presents from Santa for Christmas. There was just a lot of little things. I guess I just wish I didn't react the way I did. My sister still kind of makes fun of need for believing in Santa when I was 11... when really, my faith in Santa was shaken much younger. In fact, I don't actually remember a time that I did believe in Santa. I'm sure I did, but that was when I was much too young for me to question. Short story long, this video was incredibly validating.

[@MatanteDodo]

Judging from my oldest memories, 5 years old me would have failed all these tests, because 5 years old me was obsessed with guessing what answers the adults wanted. Once you know there's pencils in the box, "pencils" is the right answer and it's unacceptable to admit you or anyone else could get it wrong, because there's an adult asking about it.

[@catpoke9557]

I 'believed' in a lot of things when I was little that I knew weren't real. I thought some weird things like there was an angry man in the top corner of the room I slept in who had a vendetta against me and stared at me through the nonexisting crack in the wall- but I also deep down knew that wasn't true and I'd be fine.

[@acninee]

Good heavens! As a parent I would have so been looking for ways to relieve you of that anxiety of 'the corner man'.

[@Elfos64]

I hope people take this to mean "put effort into tv shows aimed at children, because mindless schlock isn't long-term sustainable even if kids do watch it".

[@bobbygirl5092]

This is why I dont baby my nieces and nephews. They are the most sofiscated thinking and well spoken children in their class and still love to play pretend and they know it's pretend

[@camelopardalis84]

I remember the time when "playing pretend" didn't really work anymore. Noticing how much I had to think to imagine something. It's a great ability children up to maybe age six to eight(?) have.

[@blaegme]

Kids are smart. What they lack is knowledge which as we know is half the battle.

[@blaegme]

@shade- gaming and vlogs seems sus guys. They didn't get the reference.

[@deawinter]

I’d love to see an experiment (or an episode if this research exists!) of how old kids are when they realize that other people can lie? Oh god that sounds so cynical! I just have very distinct memories of my parents, say, feigning surprise or interest, or saying they weren’t doing anything for my birthday, and I knew by age 4-5 when that happened. I think kids are a LOT less gullible, but most like playing pretend 😅

[@fifthape2119]

On a hot and humid summer day, sweating in the family car, my Mother drove by the big local swimming pool. I was just a kid. in the late 1950s; early 1960s. I asked my Mother why we no longer went to the swimming pool. She said that because now, they have to let the Black People in. I didn't understand what that meant. As we drove up the hill, I could see the swimming pool filled with people, of different color skin having fun, staying cool. I didn't know that I was supposed to be racist. The swimming pool closed shortly afterwards. I doubt that it closed because of a lack of customers. Racism hurts everyone. And now we have a cruel, racist president. We have right-wingers committing mass shootings. The USA hasn't really changed much. I don't understand why people who make racism such a big part of who they are, then go and deny that they are racist.

[@luminalsaturn2]

Fifth Ape I remember racism really confusing me when I was a kid... I was always reading books on animals, and just thought different skin tones were like markings on a dog or cat’s fur. Now I know that it’s the body’s natural defence against sunlight; racism STILL doesn’t make any sense lol we’re all human damnit!

[@spyrootur2013]

Fifth Ape this deserves more likes

[@mandyleigh1392]

Take heart, because racist boomers and bigoted methuselahs die every minute, and the world slowly becomes a brighter place.

[@taylorlynn5345]

I feel like I already knew this stuff because adults always treated me like I was dumber than I was. Characters in costumes never fooled me. My parents had to tell me that santa's elves go to malls to pretend to be santa, and that's why they all look different and aren't in the north pole. After that I worked in daycare and basically treated the kids like mini adults who need care, guidance, and positivity. They liked it just fine.

[@lh9591]

I never believed in Santa. In first grade elementary school when the Polar Express was read to us, and the magic bell was rang, I told the whole class I could hear the bell even though I didn’t believe in Santa. I got picked on that year for that. From then on I would just lie and say I believed in Santa. This is very similar how in adulthood I tend to avoid the God question. People always look so disappointed and shocked when they find out I’m an atheist.

[@RickySTT]

I’m impressed with kids who discover early on that God is imaginary, especially when all the adults around them appear to believe it. I didn’t figure it out until I was 42. And I can imagine the astonishment in atheist kids when they discover that the adults around them _really believe_ that God is real.

[@Phia4eva]

RickySTT I was atheist when I was 5. I remember being in kindergarten and thinking everyone was crazy. I went to a religious school back then and they did huge prayer sessions. I always pretended to have a stomachache so I didn't have to join in.

[@lh9591]

Sophia Abdali Were you raised atheist?

[@spindash64]

RickySTT I suggest being careful with that statement, good sir

[@IsmaielDeath]

@@spindash64 Why? I do remember that quite clearly. I mean a lot of adults around me played pretend with us kids (Easter bunny, Santa and co) to get us excited. I never believed in either of these things but that was okay since to all of us it was just a happy game. It was a bit shocking to see our friendly neighbour become a ranting mess over his godbelieve - I mean we kids got into arguments about makebelieve stuff to. But he was vicious to the point of scaring 4 year old me so much I didn't trust him anymore.

[@christelheadington1136]

I think all the kids figure out, very young that you don't really have their nose.

[@rochelleahsolow2405]

I remember realizing that the person didn't actually have my nose and I'd get really annoyed that they would keep on going on as if they did I remember thinking we both know that you don't have my nose why are you pretending.

[@astolat2262]

@@rochelleahsolow2405 ahahaha this made my day

[@kitchensinkchronicles3272]

i grew up not believing in santa but pretending to because all the kids who didn’t believe in him in movies were portrayed as bullies or generally rude or bad kids and i didn’t want to seem like a mean person. also, the way my mom handled the whole santa situation was that she would never specifically say “yes he’s real yes believe in him” because she felt that was dishonest, but let us absorb the santa narrative through movies and conversations with other kids. her policy was that she’d give the gifts, not say anything about it, but the second either me or my brother asked if santa was real, she’d tell us the truth. she figured if we were old enough to question it, we were old enough to know. she didn’t want to lie to us for no reason, we’d still get the presents anyway so what’s the big deal? well it worked out for me because after a while i just stopped pretending to believe and we had a mutual understanding. my brother did ask, however, when he was about 9. when she told him santa wasn’t real, he broke out into tears. i still don’t know if this plan was the right one or not.

[@metametodo]

This is awesome. After this I think that in some way the imaginary world for kids isn't much different from when we adults decide to pretend we are a character in a D&D game, or in a video game. Children may have their conception of real and imaginary with less defined and weaker barriers, but they've been growing and strengthening that barrier since very young ages, and now they just like to play pretend in situations closer to reality than the situations adults like to play pretend.

[@Yotanido]

I don't remember exactly how old I was, but I was about waist-height of the adults. My grandma invited "santa" around christmas time. I refused to talk to him and generally just thought "what is this guy doing here". I did not realise how condescending and insulting this actually was until much later, though. That said, some other time (I was in 3rd grade, I believe), I was balancing along a low wall and some stranger told me not to fall off. First, I won't. Second, even if I do - it's like half a metre high and I'll land on my feet... THAT annoyed me quite a bit.

[@Kathbunny2]

Adults are learn slower than children, but children lack experience. Both are at an advantage and disadvantage at the same time.

[@ianrbuck]

Whoa, that's a very regionally-specific sponsor! If this were a podcast, I would think it was a dynamically-inserted ad, but KZbin doesn't do that.

[@IamJenJen101]

I remember every year I asked my dad if Santa Claus was really actually real, and every year he said yes, then eventually I stopped because I trusted my dad, then I cried when he told me Santa wasn't real cause I asked him over and over and he just lied. I don't want to act as if he's real to my kids because of this. It's kinda cruel to me to, as the person a kid is supposed to trust most in the world, straight up lie to them and distort their vision of reality, for no real reason. It breeds mistrust for many other things.

[@futurestoryteller]

Think they mentioned in another video that studies show kids who are convinced by their parents that Santa is real are more suspicious of other people's intentions as adults.

[@ashleyjob3691]

My mom felt the same way, so we never did the Santa thing, we had other fun traditions instead. Although we did have to get talks about not telling other kids he isn't real, some people's parents get really mad about that lol

[@Zypherfox1]

Santa's real. He exists as an egrego or type of ghost. XD

[@fendoroid3788]

Researcher: What color is the pencil? Kid: Yes.

[@Magmafrost13]

Kids are such a weird combination of smarter than you'd think but dumber than you'd hope

[@futurestoryteller]

You're thinking of old people.

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

The adult belief in children's general incompetence often sadly becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[@Kathbunny2]

We doom them ourselves by treating them like idiots.

[@driftingdruid]

i'm probably still not competent enough to adult

[@mochiattoart514]

I hate when adults laughed at me for stuff and expected me not to understand that they were ridiculing me. I remember my teacher laughing at me for spelling 'chicken' and not 'chiken' which means I was right all along. Note that we didn't live in a country that speaks english as a native language, but it's still dumb for them to spell it as chiken.

[@cambriakilgannon12]

Was that the host, Brit, dressed up as Elsa??

[@urmomdoer2315]

When I was 8 I was already questioning life, physics, and how can *everyone* have a happy ending in the story of what I thought was life.

[@KateeAngel]

Some kids are gullible, but they also grow up into very gullible adults. Some adults are much more gullible than some kids. The same as not all teens are silly and irresponsible, some are more responsible than many adults

[@KaylaNoelle1]

This is why my dad hated anyone baby talking at me /talking down to me as a baby/child. He’d say “she’s not stupid and she’s learning so you can speak to her normally.” Thanks dad 😪

[@Master_Therion]

Kid: I'm not gullible. I don't believe you. Adult: Yeah, sorry. I was just kidding. Kid: Hey, that's my job!

[@driftingdruid]

heehee punny

[@fifthape2119]

I was about 9 years old, when the Sunday School teacher said, _"When everyone believes in God, God will stop the suffering and make life a paradise for everyone."_ I thought to myself, _"Why is God waiting? If he could do it now, why not do it now?"_ I looked around the room at the other boys standing on chairs throwing paper airplanes, and thought, _"there's no way that _*_everyone_*_ will ever believe in God; doubtful, that even everyone in this room will ever really believe in God."_ I stopped believing in God, but I was still afraid of how mean God could be. As an adult, I bought a Bible and a Quran. I saw the violence of religion. Those books can be (are) interpreted in so many different ways because they are so poorly written. Now I'm unafraid and completely free of God.

[@skylovermc2146]

Fifth Ape you should never assume every person is the same just because you hear stories about a certain group

[@fifthape2119]

@@skylovermc2146 Did I say, or imply, that _"every person is the same"_ ?

[@enderallygolem]

@@skylovermc2146 "Not everyone believes in god" and "everyone does not believe in god" are different you know

[@fifthape2119]

@@skylovermc2146 Do you sometimes imagine that you see or hear words or sentences (like "every person is the same")? Do you sometimes imagine that you see or hear ghosts/spirits/angels/demons/gods/devils/UFOs/space aliens? Does this happen often?

[@humblesoldier5474]

People mistake gullible for honest trust from kids. Kids are by no means gullible. They trust others, and expect that they are trust worthy. When you break that trust with a child it's worse than breaking it with an adult. They will absolutely refuse if they can to do anything for you, or with you again, and they will for as long as they remember what you did hold it against you, and remind you of what you did wrong. This is why you will see new children when added to a friendly group ask around if that adult is trust worthy. If they get a negative they will avoid you like you're death itself. If they get a positive. You just gained a very honest, kind, loyal friend by reputation alone. This is why you'll see kids cling to one adult over others in a group. They know which adults they can and can't trust.

[@km1dash6]

I think it's weirder that adults believe things that we do.

[@desp8161]

Like astrology, alkaline diets, flat earth etc

[@muddy111]

kylerm18 “we” are you a kid?

[@desp8161]

@@muddy111 I think you misread the sentence. We is refering to adults.

[@muddy111]

de sp he said adults believe things that WE do referring to children

[@fanofstuff1607]

Santiago Carrillo he could be referring to younger kids and be a teenager. I’m a teenager and I would do that unintentionally.

[@thethegreenmachine]

Is it a failure in the theory of mind department for so many adults who believe that anyone who runs from the cops is guilty? They seem to be planting their own thoughts into someone else's head.

[@mmtruooao8377]

I think if we are trained or surrounded by a strong belief for long enough, it becomes a part of regular life. Plenty of people do have trouble recognizing any perceived criminal or threat as a fully fleshed out person with their own motivation, and I think if they do believe in the person's reasoning, the logic would follow that the person must have done something bad, even if it were for a good reason, or that there's nothing they can do about it.

[@futurestoryteller]

Talk to anyone for long enough about things that are wrong with the world and you realize that their "beliefs" are fundamentally built upon not changing their mind just to conserve some imaginary resource of emotional energy. Or "time" which is more valuable, but I always think that if you don't have "time" to think, a process that virtually moves at the speed of light, then why should anyone ever be considerate of you, or your feelings - ever? People say that if you care about everything you'd just be curled up in a ball, but it doesn't actually take energy to care. In the long run you'll lose a lot more by not caring. Case in point: global warming.

[@TheFox517]

I feel like kids are treated like animals. Specifically pets. In a way, they're really similar. Africans grays are as intelligent as, I believe, 3 year-olds (or maybe older, I forgot). They can recognize shapes, colors, numbers, use tools and form simple sentences. Both of them aren't given enough credit though. Grays get mistrwated and abused because they're "dumb birds" and children aren't being heard when somebody is hurting them because "they're just kids". I've also noticed that, if you're underage, your parents are likely to treat you like you're a complete idiot or just straight up subhuman. Hell, you'll always remain their child, so it might stick and follow you for the rest of your life if you don't get out of there. Even if you show them an actual encyclopedia page or scientific papers, you're still wrong because they're older than you. Of course, not all parents are like that (my mom sees me as more than a fleshy drone, how rare), but, from my observations, they're likely to be like that. ...which goes full circle and leads to the mistreatment of their children's pets because they think they know better despite the fact that their child did months and months of research, asked many experienced pet owners for advice and is active on tons of forums with a crap ton of detailed posts and discussions. All because they're older and can't use the internet, which automatically makes it unreliable, making them the dumb ones in this situation. I used the pet thing just because it was the first thing that came to mind. Also, I hate it and have to mention it everywhere i go. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[@Kathbunny2]

I've met people who treat their dogs as though the dog was smarter than their 12 year old kid. But when I talked to the 12 year old, the conversation was much more intelligent and interesting than with those people.

[@katerinachelmis568]

I remember being 5 and being asked if Santa was real. I lied and said yes, stood by that lie for a long time because I knew that was the answer people wanted.

[@123goofyking]

Lying for the sake of pleasing others is pretty common. And it can be argued whether that's a good or bad thing.

[@o76923]

If you grew up Christian, think about how many Jewish friends or classmates you had. Every one of them knew Santa was not real. Yet so few of us learned Santa wasn't real by one of them telling us that. Kids absolutely can understand the importance of pretending something is true even when they know it isn't.

[@katerinachelmis568]

My whole family grandparents and all are atheists. I’m pretty sure all American kids get told the easier bunny and Santa lies regardless of religion.

[@enderallygolem]

I didn't even know christmas was related to Christianity for a long time

[@kathrynyaksich7588]

When I was 5 or 6, I always thought it was weird when I stated something obvious and my parents would be suprized.

[@horse14t]

As a 5-6 year old my mom explained to me that I had 7 long gone siblings that didn't make it between me and my older sister (she's 10 years older then me and my dead siblings were all either miscarriages, stillborn, or died shortly after birth). Even though I didn't know how reproduction worked at that age I had a pretty good grasp of death and the concept of stillborns and pregnancy and that not all babies make it. I really do appreciate that my mom didn't hide stuff like that from me or try to sugar coat it in any way. Heck she even told me that my middle name "Hope" comes from one of my lost sisters that didn't make it 🧡 I actually remember feeling quite close to my lost sister when I learned that and being sad that I'll never meet her at the time.

[@amberhawksong]

I'm glad you made it into this world, and your mother sounds like an amazing person 😊

[@You_work_tomorrow]

My little brother convinced himself that shadows were both alive and actively trying to take over and replace us, so idk....

[@enderallygolem]

Before long he'll be a conspiracy theorists

[@timhonks13]

I live in Minnesota and was shocked with that opening lmao

[@johnmivule-novabow8143]

_Young kids are more dumber than adults_ People Raiding AREA 51 TO CLAP ALIEN CHEEKS: *HOLD MY BEER*

[@enderallygolem]

*Flat earthers*

[@therabbithat]

Kids have all these theories about death and nobody feels comfortable talking about it so they come up with crazy theories Kudos to whoever thought of the design for the pencil experiment, genius

[@skylovermc2146]

therabbithat I knew what death was when I was in 3rd grade. I pretended that my fish wasn’t actually dead.. just sleeping

[@enderallygolem]

Death is just permanent sleep

[@arthurobrien7424]

I was a toddler once, you know. Really funny when adults talked about sex and thought I would not understand.

[@krdjmtc]

I realized actors were regular people and had lives outside of shows when I heard Steve left Blue’s Clues to go to college. I was probably 2 or 3 then.

[@xxkcarpxx]

Glad you're still doing SciShow! Great host on here and Nature League

[@THETRIVIALTHINGS]

Kids are smart, but then they grow up and get dumber. Adults then project their stupidity on the kids. Underestimating the smaller thing.

[@shadesilverwing0]

Now there's something to look forward to. Enjoy the feeling of getting stupider year after year.

[@THETRIVIALTHINGS]

@@shadesilverwing0 I don't underestimate kids. They're sneaky and cunning. Predatory s.o.b's.

[@sigourneyivison7838]

When I was little my dad would say: look over there and steal some of my food but than after a while of him doing that I would grab my plate and look the other way when he said that

[@hazelnut20030]

whenever adults used to do that thing where they spell around me so i don’t know what to say i never told them when i learned how to read and spell and all that and i thought i was a spy and they thought i was a slow learner

[@Minx-4321]

Im still salty about how I was treated as a child, everything that came out of my mouth was supposedly lies and they thought i had like short term memory loss or something but I will always remember the little thing adults have done

[@rogerhinman5427]

I remember how my friends and I were as kids and I have always assumed all kids were pretty much just as smart or smarter.

[@adjly1824]

“Saying I’m not sure is learning” My parents:What are you watching? Me: *I’m not sure*

[@zeonmoo192]

Whenever a teacher uses a puppet character to teach a lesson, there's always that ONE kid who's like "I know it's not real! It's just a puppet and you're the one making it talk!" And I'm like shut up Johnny I know you know it's fake but it's supposed to be fun I'm not trying to make you think it's real, I'm trying to make it fun for everyone

[@starspeakz]

i remember this from 1st grade teacher: clouds are blue other kids: *draw blue clouds" me: *paints the whole sky blue and thinks that teacher is stupid for the rest of the year"

[@enderallygolem]

But did you draw clouds with a flat bottom?

[@starspeakz]

@@enderallygolem i dont think so neither did those classmates

[@davetoms1]

Is that Brit dressed up as Elsa? Brit, you nailed it : ) Great video too, as always!

[@fruityfuzzball]

My dad: **treats me like a baby** My mom: **is afraid that I would use “violence” from video games** Me: **is a 14 year old who has actual common sense**

[@SerDerpish]

The real question becomes how much of that “gullibility” is actually introduced by indictrination and forcing children to “believe” in fantasy entities like Santa Claus and God, squashing any legitimate curiosity and critical thinking skills they might otherwise exhibit if it weren’t discouraged or denied. No, I’m not bitter about that at all, why are you asking? 😂😅😭

[@fanofstuff1607]

As an atheist I understand why you said that, I like you said that, but I can totally see someone yelling at you, and this comment would probably mean more to people if god wasn’t included. I like it but I feel like it would send more of a message if it was different.

[@squippites7356]

My brother says I can’t play yandere simulator because he thinks I would end up going around stabbing people.

[@jasondeng7677]

3 year old: intelligence 68 5 year old: intelligence 100

[@MrMonkeybat]

When I was a kid I remember my parents frustrating me by thinking I was stupider than I was all the time. No mum you did not need to continually remind me something was not real wenever I was pretend or enjoying some story.

[@woodfur00]

I reserved judgement on Santa until I was six. That year, my mom forgot to mark any presents 'from Santa' (possibly connected to scruples about lying about Santa in the first place), and I'd been extra good that year, so I figured that was proof.

[@xdonthave1xx]

When I’m explaining something to my (two years old) nephew, I will sometimes say, “[Name], you might not understand this for a while, but...” and then I’ll explain the thing as if he were an adult. If he understands it, awesome. And if not, that’s fine too, he’s still young and inexperienced.

[@videakias3000]

one time when I was young(probably 4) I saw on the news a sad story where a woman killed a baby by throwing out of the balcony and I started crying and asking my mom to not do the same to me. in case you wonder both of my parents are good people that have never once hit me,I was just silly.I love them both.

[@IceMetalPunk]

That said, there was also a similar study that found that children raised religiously were less likely to know the difference between real and imaginary things -- they're more likely to think wizards and unicorns are real than those who are not raised religiously.

[@amylizbrarian]

IceMetalPunk kinda ironic, considering how some religious parents consider any story featuring magic to be encouraging witchcraft/worshipping the devil... they shouldn’t have to worry about that if their kids are able to tell the difference between real and imaginary (and thus recognize fiction and play pretend). Plenty of parents who practice a religion are able to recognize fantasy and encourage a kid’s imagination without being paranoid that the kid will decide wizards are real and god is not. It would be interesting to see a comparison between the kids of “ban this book because witchcraft” religious parents vs “let’s read harry potter after church” religious parents vs. non-religious parents.

[@o76923]

[citation needed]

[@camelopardalis84]

@@o76923 You can look it up.

[@IceMetalPunk]

@@o76923 Citation supplied: www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-28537149

[@IceMetalPunk]

@@amylizbrarian That would be interesting. But that said, the Bible is full of fantasy elements which are considered to be real/true by religious adults, who then teach their children that these things are real/true. It gives them examples of fantastical things that they're expected to believe in, which makes it harder for them to tell the difference between reality and fantasy (as the study, which I linked in my other comment in this thread, showed).

[@kaygabs3043]

When I was a little I would pretend to believe in santa so that I would get presents :P

[@RGapskiM]

All these studies suffer from the fact kids might have a greater difficulty with semantics than with abstract concepts. The last one was a good indication that that is the case.

[@caspian8650]

Kids will play along with anything to be polite. They're humoring us more often than we like to think.

[@ghost-by4fl]

I remember being 11 and thinking I had the same intellect as a grown man. I was dumb as frick.

[@lizzyb.8009]

when i was in elementary school, i was fascinated with the paranormal. i'd constantly check out books from the library about ghosts, cryptids, aliens, and Atlantis. but, interestingly, i distinctly remember having thoughts along the lines of "it'd be really neat *if* these things were real." even one time when i took a picture of a "ghost", despite professing that i thought it was really a ghost, and trying to convince people i showed it to that it was real, despite not actually believing it myself. i feel like this episode actually gave me some insight into why i was like this at the time...

[@martijnvanweele6204]

My mother is an elementary school teacher, and she tells the children in her class: "If you don't believe in Santa Claus, he won't bring you presents." I think that is a brilliant way of handling that.

[@Famously5518]

I feel like people just forget what being a kid is like

[@jamepix]

Fake but likely studies show that gachatuber’s brains develop twice as slow as normal children.

[@xander413]

what do you mean fake?

[@berdinderindas]

Lol

[@froggiebeans6928]

i remember when i was little i said to my mom "i know santa isn't real." and my mom would always say something like "what??? of COURSE he is, what are you talking about?" and so the only reason i kept up the facade was because i didn't want my mom to feel bad

[@eliscanfield3913]

My 5yo son's imaginary friend is also a real friend he doesn't get to see that often. He easily distinguishes between Pretend Kellie and Real Kellie.

[@mreeeeeegf]

It's crazy that the US is not supporting children for free like that. Like "Oh your parents are broke? Sorry kid, gotta get sick, that's how it is." Barbaric

[@camelopardalis84]

They're never actually telling the children that. They're rather telling their parents that "it's their own damn fault their property (their children) got damaged (ill or abused) or broken (dead)" and that it's their responsiblity to take care of their property (their children) and no-one else's. The fact that those children are human beings who can't help having poor parents those people absolutely tune out.

[@Astr1d_Jp3g]

About the banana doll expiriment, don't kids pay attention to alot of things? Like if they get bored from watching the dolly walk they could JSUT look at the dolls house and see them switch the bananas, or their just looking around

[@purplekitten6637]

When I was little, although I believed in Santa, I never believed that the men who came to our kindergarten dressed as Santa were actually Santa. I also never believed in any type of monster or fairy.

[@1Hawkears1]

I remember thinking I was the only person who couldn't see my own eyes

[@storylover8198]

Parent: we're going to meet Santa!! Younger me what I say: YAY *what I think* Younger me: as if I really believe that

[@johnmivule-novabow8143]

People who think children are less smarter than adults Vs People RAIDING AREA 51

[@happybalint]

As a kid I always doubted the existence of santa, and that my drawings actually looked good

[@breadsela2814]

don't ever tell self-conscious adults that kids are as stupid as they think they will throw a tantrum the likes of which you have never seen