Children and adults express greater confidence in the existence of invisible scientific as compared to invisible religious entities. To further examine this differential confidence, 5- to 11-year-old Turkish children and their parents (N = 174, 122 females) from various regions in Türkiye, a country with an ongoing tension between secularism and religion, were tested in 2021 for their belief in invisible entities. Participants expressed more confidence in the existence of scientific than religious entities. For scientific entities, children justified their belief primarily by elaborating on the properties of the entity, rather than referring to the testimonial source of their judgment. This pattern was reversed for religious entities, arguably, highlighting the role of polarization in shaping the testimony children typically hear.

中文翻译：

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宗教两极分化和对无形的科学实体与宗教实体的信仰的合理化


与无形的宗教实体相比，儿童和成人对无形科学的存在表示更大的信心。为了进一步检验这种不同的信心，来自土耳其不同地区的 5 至 11 岁土耳其儿童及其父母（N = 174,122 名女性）在 2021 年接受了他们对无形实体信仰的测试，土耳其是一个世俗主义和宗教之间持续紧张的国家。参与者表示，与宗教实体相比，他们对科学实体的存在更有信心。对于科学实体，孩子们主要通过详细说明实体的属性来证明他们的信仰是合理的，而不是参考他们判断的证词来源。可以说，这种模式在宗教实体中是相反的，这凸显了两极分化在塑造儿童通常听到的证词中的作用。