Causal illusions in children when the outcome is frequent

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dc.contributor.authorMoreno Fernández, María Manuela
dc.contributor.authorBlanco Bregón, Fernando
dc.contributor.authorMatute, Helena
dc.date.accessioned2026-03-06T15:46:28Z
dc.date.available2026-03-06T15:46:28Z
dc.date.issued2017-09-12
dc.date.updated2026-03-06T15:46:28Z
dc.description.abstractCausal illusions occur when people perceive a causal relation between two events that are actually unrelated. One factor that has been shown to promote these mistaken beliefs is the outcome probability. Thus, people tend to overestimate the strength of a causal relation when the potential consequence (i.e. the outcome) occurs with a high probability (outcome-density bias). Given that children and adults differ in several important features involved in causal judgment, including prior knowledge and basic cognitive skills, developmental studies can be considered an outstanding approach to detect and further explore the psychological processes and mechanisms underlying this bias. However, the outcome density bias has been mainly explored in adulthood, and no previous evidence for this bias has been reported in children. Thus, the purpose of this study was to extend outcome-density bias research to childhood. In two experiments, children between 6 and 8 years old were exposed to two similar setups, both showing a non-contingent relation between the potential cause and the outcome. These two scenarios differed only in the probability of the outcome, which could either be high or low. Children judged the relation between the two events to be stronger in the high probability of the outcome setting, revealing that, like adults, they develop causal illusions when the outcome is frequent.en
dc.description.sponsorshipSupport for this research was provided by Grant PSI2016-78818-RAEI/FEDER from Agencia Estatal de Investigación of the Spanish Government (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), as well as Grant IT955-16 from the Basque Government, both granted to Helena Matuteen
dc.identifier.citationMoreno-Fernández, M. M., Blanco, F., & Matute, H. (2017). Causal illusions in children when the outcome is frequent. PLoS ONE, 12(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0184707
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0184707
dc.identifier.eissn1932-6203
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14454/5356
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherPublic Library of Science
dc.rights© 2017 Moreno-Fernández et al.
dc.titleCausal illusions in children when the outcome is frequenten
dc.typejournal article
dcterms.accessRightsopen access
oaire.citation.issue9
oaire.citation.titlePLoS ONE
oaire.citation.volume12
oaire.licenseConditionhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
oaire.versionVoR
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