Not yesterday, but maybe tomorrow: Children are more open to possibility in the future than the past
Abstract
Previous research finds that children are surprisingly closed to the possibility of unlikely events. Two studies with 5-to-8-year-old children (N = 240; 68% female; mixed ethnicities) and adults (N = 550; 42% female; mixed ethnicities) collected between July 2020 and December 2020, found that children are more open to the possibility of all event types in the future than in the past, and that all age groups were less likely to categorize all event types as impossible when they had the option of categorizing them as "possible, but unlikely" than when they only had the option of calling them "possible." However, many children still frequently categorized unlikely events as impossible. These findings shed light on conditions that influence children's possibility judgments while underscoring their robust tendency to conflate improbability with impossibility.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Child and Animal Learning Development
Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Child Development
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Volume
- 97
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 154–167
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN