Running head: CHILDREN'S ATTRIBUTIONS OF BELIEFS

Children's Attributions 8

In Figure 1 we offer a tree diagram to show how these positions are related to each other.
The graphs outline predictions of false-belief task performance in relation to humans and God.
To illustrate the graphs, consider a surprising contents task: suppose children are presented with
a closed cracker box, shown that the box contains small rocks, and then asked what a human and
God, who did not have a chance to look inside the box, would think is inside.

FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE.

In all graphs, the top line represents attribution of beliefs to humans, and the bottom line
represents attribution of belief to God. On the Y axis, performance is mapped; the higher the
line, the more likely it is that a child would attribute false beliefs to the agent in question - to say
that a human or God would think that the box contains crackers. The X axis shows the
developmental time frame. As indicated by the dotted lines, the age range of 4 to 7 is the most
relevant to our discussion, since it is then that children, according to the current literature, come
to attribute false beliefs to human agents (see discussion in the previous section).

At the highest level of the tree, the opposition is between similarity and non-similarity
perspectives with regard to the way beliefs are attributed to God and humans. From a non-
similarity perspective, children would start to differentiate humans and God (attributing more
false beliefs to humans than to God) from the very beginning of the developmental stage of our
concern. From a similarity perspective, children would attribute either true beliefs or false beliefs
to both humans and God in equal measure, initially, and for at least some part of this
developmental time frame.

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