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Teleological Explanation in Parent–Child Conversations Developmental Psychology Copyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association 2005, Vol. 41, No. 1, 251–264 0012-1649/05/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.41.1.251 Why Things Happen: Teleological Explanation in Parent–Child Conversations Deborah Kelemen Maureen A. Callanan Boston University University of California, Santa Cruz Krista Casler Deanne R. Pe´rez-Granados Boston University Stanford University Research indicates that young children, unlike adults, have a generalized tendency to view not only artifacts but also living and nonliving natural phenomena as existing for a purpose. To further understand this tendency’s origin, the authors explored parents’ propensity to invoke teleological explanation during explanatory conversations with their children. Over 2 weeks, Mexican-descent mothers were interviewed about question–answer exchanges with their preschool children. Analyses revealed that children asked more about biological and social phenomena than about artifacts or nonliving natural phenomena, with most questions ambiguous as to whether they were requests for causal or teleological explanations. In responding to these ambiguous questions, parents generally invoked causal rather than teleological explanations. The tendency to favor causal explanation was confirmed by analyses of transcripts from a longitudinal study of spontaneous speech in a father–son dyad. These results suggest that children’s bias toward teleological explanation does not straightforwardly derive from parent explanation. The tendency to explain objects and events in terms of their activities, such as breathing or working (behaviors viewed as “for” functions, designs, or purposes—to adopt a teleological mode of sustaining life either biologically or materially). It helps to con- explanation—is a significant aspect of adults’ explanatory reper- strain our reasoning about unfamiliar objects and events, allowing toire. The bias to reason in teleological terms gives cohesion to us to figure out, for example, how an unfamiliar gadget or body notions of artifacts, such as chairs (objects viewed as “for” sitting part works, why it has the properties it does, and how it relates to on), body parts, such as feet (objects viewed as “for” walking), and other things. In short, teleological reasoning plays a substantial role in adults’ theory building about everyday phenomena, prompt- ing a profoundly human compulsion to ask questions, such as “Why?” and “What is it for?” (e.g., Dawkins, 1995; Kelemen, 1999a, 1999c, 1999d). Deborah Kelemen and Krista Casler, Department of Psychology, Boston University; Maureen A. Callanan, Department of Psychology, University Because teleological thought is such an important feature of of California, Santa Cruz; Deanne R. Pe´rez-Granados, Department of adult cognition, research has recently begun to explore how it Psychology, Stanford University. develops (Keil, 1992, 1995; Kelemen, 1999c; for related re- This work was supported by Grant NIH HD37903–01 from the National search, see also Evans, 2000; Gergely, Na´dasdy, Csibra, & Institute of Child Health and Human Development to Deborah Kelemen. Bı´ro´, 1995; Opfer & Gelman, 2001; Poling & Evans, 2002). Maureen A. Callanan was supported under the Education Research and These studies have indicated that young children’s teleological Development Program, PR/Award No. R306A60001 of the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), as administered intuitions are, in many ways, like those of adults. For instance, by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), National it has been found that, like Western-educated adults, preschool Institute on the Education of At-Risk Students (NIEARS), U.S. Department children presume that biological parts and artifacts are designed of Education (USDOE). The contents, findings, and opinions expressed to fulfill specific functions rather than perform incidental ac- here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the positions tivities (Kelemen, 1999c, 2004; see also German & Johnson, or policies of the OERI, the NIEARS, or the USDOE. 2002; Matan & Carey, 2001). Furthermore, like adults, pre- We are grateful to Consuelo Alba-Speyer, Norma Barajas, Marla Black, Christi Cervantes, Maribel Dominguez, Evie Rosset, Laura Frias, Joanna schoolers use teleological assumptions about biological prop- Goldberg, Arturo Gomez, Reyna Juarez, Gladys Landa, Mirna Saab, Ruby erties to constrain inferences about unfamiliar animals. They Sendejas, Lisa Tripp, and Francisca Vergara for their assistance in inter- therefore conclude that physically dissimilar animals (e.g., otter viewing parents, translating materials, transcribing tapes, coding, and anal- and booby bird) that share the same functional body part (e.g., ysis. Special thanks to Jack Vevea and Kim Saudino for statistical advice. webbed feet) are more likely to have a similar behavioral We are also especially grateful to the parents and children who participated property (e.g., aquatic living) than two overall similar animals in the study for their generous assistance. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Deborah (e.g., otter and weasel) who do not share such a body part Kelemen, Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington (Kelemen, 1999b; Kelemen, Widdowson, Posner, Brown, & Street, Boston, MA 02215. E-mail: [email protected] Casler, 2003; also McCarrell & Callanan, 1995). 251 252 KELEMEN, CALLANAN, CASLER, AND PE´ REZ-GRANADOS However, in addition to these similarities, research has revealed availability and acceptance of religiously based teleological expla- some striking developmental differences. Specifically, preschool nation (Kelemen, 2003). children assign purpose to a broader array of objects and events An obvious question raised by these differences in children’s than adults do. In addition to artifacts, biological properties, and and adults’ attribution of purpose is why they occur. Piaget (1929), behaviors, they also view nonliving natural objects, such as clouds, who first noted children’s general orientation toward teleological and their properties as existing “for” something (Kelemen, 1999c; ideas, argued that the developmental contrast occurred because see also Piaget, 1929; but see Keil, 1992). This finding has now children have a profoundly different conception of the natural been established in several studies using various methods and with world than adults. He suggested that young children reason tele- samples of diverse ethnicity. For example, in one experiment, 4- ologically because they are unable to think in nonintentional and 5-year-old children were shown photographs of artifacts, an- physical–causal terms and, in consequence, develop “childhood imals, and nonliving natural objects. They were then asked what artificialism” or the fundamental misconception that all things each of the objects was “for” in a game in which they were also occur through human causation. Subsequent research has since asked to identify when they had been posed a “silly” unanswerable challenged Piaget’s assertion that young children cannot entertain question. The study found that adults were selective in their physical causality (e.g., Baillargeon, 1993; Chandler & Lalonde, responses. They responded that biological properties (e.g., feet) 1994; Shultz, 1982) or that children indiscriminately attribute and artifacts and their parts (e.g., clocks and clock hands) are “for” human origins to all phenomena (Gelman & Kremer, 1991; something but that, in general, it is “silly” to ask what whole living Gelman & Markman, 1987; Keil, 1989; Petrovich, 1997; but see things (e.g., tigers) and nonliving natural objects and their prop- Evans, 2000, 2001). Nevertheless, the idea that children’s teleo- erties (e.g., mountains, mountain peaks) are “for” because they logical explanatory tendencies primarily derive from an intrinsic have no function. In contrast, children assigned functions to all cognitive source still motivates most contemporary accounts (e.g., kinds of objects, stating them not only for artifacts and body parts Atran, 1994, 1995; Carey, 1995; Keil, 1992, 1994; Kelemen, but also for whole living things (e.g., “tigers are for walking 1999a, 1999b, 1999c; also Evans, 2000, 2001). around and going in the zoo”) and nonliving natural objects and For example, one recent proposal (Kelemen, 1999a; Kelemen & their parts (e.g., “mountains and their peaks are for climbing”). A DiYanni, 2005) is that although young children are able to reason in physical–causal terms, in general, humans’ evolution as social follow-up study used a forced-choice method to evaluate whether animals has particularly oriented them to intentional explanation children really thought that the objects were “made for” these (e.g., Byrne & Whiten, 1988; Gallup, Marino, & Eddy, 1997; activities or whether the activities were just activities the objects Heider & Simmel, 1944). This sensitivity is manifest from early in “do” or can be “used to do.” This study also found that preschool development (e.g., Gergely et al., 1995; Johnson, 2000; Tomasello, children differed from adults by asserting that entities of all 1999) and is the basis of teleological notions about objects and kinds—clocks, feet, lions, and icebergs—were “made for some- events. In brief, the idea is that through their sensitivity to inten- thing” (Kelemen, 1999c), and further work indicated that they tionality, children come to compensate for gaps in their knowledge viewed natural and artificial
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