that I started to wonder why adults would want children to believe in Santa Claus, and whether their reasons for it were actually good.
I think that lots of people have a kind of compulsion to lie to anyone they care about who is credulous, particularly children, about things that don’t matter very much. I assume it’s adaptive behaviour, to try to toughen up their reasoning skills on matters that aren’t so important—to teach them that they can’t rely on even good people to tell them stuff that is true.
I think that lots of people have a kind of compulsion to lie to anyone they care about who is credulous, particularly children, about things that don’t matter very much. I assume it’s adaptive behaviour, to try to toughen up their reasoning skills on matters that aren’t so important—to teach them that they can’t rely on even good people to tell them stuff that is true.
They’re just so cute when they believe nonsense!!!
(Why they’re cute may be given by Nancy below.)