September 23, 2020: "The Explanatory Structure of Unexplainable Events: Causal Constraints on..."

In our lab meeting this week, we discussed Shtulman and Morgan's (2017) paper, "The Explanatory Structure of Unexplainable Events: Causal Constraints on Magical Reasoning." The study investigated why adults and kids think some impossible events are more possible than others, e.g. it is harder to lift a heavier object with magic than a lighter object. Shtulman and Morgan found that participants' judgments about the difficulty of different magical spells was related to causal laws and reasoning.

Shtulman, A. & Morgan, C. The Explanatory Structure of Unexplainable Events: Causal Constraints on Magical Reasoning. Psychon Bull Rev,(24), 1573-1585.