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Are there any such documented cases? I would think that level of cognitive indirection is beyond most 3-7 year-olds.

tictoc 7y ago
How would you go about documenting that? There are so many kids. Kids imitate facial expressions or sayings they heard from television. Why wouldn't they just make up a fake friend because they heard about it on TV or youtube
- scott_s 7y ago
  Because for a 3-7 year-old, I'm not sure how to differentiate between made up a fake friend and made up a friend. edit: To directly answer your question: I don't know, and that's part of my point.
  - tictoc 7y ago
    What's the significance of the fake friend in the first place?
    - scott_s 7y ago
      It's the topic of our discussion.
  - JumpCrisscross 7y ago
    > I'm not sure how to differentiate between made up a fake friend and made up a friend Audience. A fake imaginary friend is a prop. The child sees imaginary friends are desirable and performs as if they have one. If there is no audience, there is no imaginary friend. A bona fide imaginary friend, on the other hand, should be more likely to be addressed when the child thinks they’re alone.
asark 7y ago
Maybe every single one of my kids is exceptional but I think at least two, and maybe all three, would have been capable of imitating that behavior for effect (amusing adults, attempting to amuse themselves in a way they'd observed another kid being amused), with an understanding of exactly what they were imitating, by no later than age two. Without understanding exactly what was going on, they might have managed to simply mimic the behavior some months earlier than that.
snegu 7y ago
I remember as a young kid thinking that it would make me look cute and creative if I had an imaginary friend (because apparently that was a thing kids were supposed to do). I couldn't keep it up - it just didn't really make sense to me.
rikroots 7y ago
From this article on the Psychology Today website: Taylor and her colleagues found that 77 percent of these children said “yes” when asked if they had a pretend friend, and 40 percent spontaneously remarked at some point during the interview that they were talking about a pretend friend. The children offered statements such as, “Her is a fake animal,” “I just made him up in my head,” and “He’s not in real life.” Only one child was adamant that her invisible friend was real. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/growing-friendships/201301/imaginary-friends https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/growing-friendships/...
- scott_s 7y ago
  I don't think that addresses what I was wondering about. That a child acknowledges that their made-up friend is in fact made-up does not mean they're faking the made-up friend.
  - rikroots 7y ago
    Sorry - I misunderstood. Are you talking about kids who will claim to have made-up friends because of peer pressure? I've not heard of that sort of thing before, but I suppose it's possible - some people/kids will tie themselves into knots just to fit in with the other kids. (Personal example: I deliberately lied about not understanding how to do long division just so I wouldn't look too clever in front of my peers - I kept up the pretence for several months.)
    - scott_s 7y ago
      Perhaps it's simplest to refer to the comment I replied to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20565292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20565292
fouc 7y ago
I think you're underestimating the level of cognitive indirection that 5-7 year olds are capable of.

How would you go about documenting that? There are so many kids. Kids imitate facial expressions or sayings they heard from television. Why wouldn't they just make up a fake friend because they heard about it on TV or youtube

scott_s 7y ago
Because for a 3-7 year-old, I'm not sure how to differentiate between made up a fake friend and made up a friend. edit: To directly answer your question: I don't know, and that's part of my point.
- tictoc 7y ago
  What's the significance of the fake friend in the first place?
  - scott_s 7y ago
    It's the topic of our discussion.
- JumpCrisscross 7y ago
  > I'm not sure how to differentiate between made up a fake friend and made up a friend Audience. A fake imaginary friend is a prop. The child sees imaginary friends are desirable and performs as if they have one. If there is no audience, there is no imaginary friend. A bona fide imaginary friend, on the other hand, should be more likely to be addressed when the child thinks they’re alone.

asark 7y ago

Maybe every single one of my kids is exceptional but I think at least two, and maybe all three, would have been capable of imitating that behavior for effect (amusing adults, attempting to amuse themselves in a way they'd observed another kid being amused), with an understanding of exactly what they were imitating, by no later than age two. Without understanding exactly what was going on, they might have managed to simply mimic the behavior some months earlier than that.

snegu 7y ago

I remember as a young kid thinking that it would make me look cute and creative if I had an imaginary friend (because apparently that was a thing kids were supposed to do). I couldn't keep it up - it just didn't really make sense to me.

rikroots 7y ago

From this article on the Psychology Today website: Taylor and her colleagues found that 77 percent of these children said “yes” when asked if they had a pretend friend, and 40 percent spontaneously remarked at some point during the interview that they were talking about a pretend friend. The children offered statements such as, “Her is a fake animal,” “I just made him up in my head,” and “He’s not in real life.” Only one child was adamant that her invisible friend was real. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/growing-friendships/201301/imaginary-friends https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/growing-friendships/...

scott_s 7y ago
I don't think that addresses what I was wondering about. That a child acknowledges that their made-up friend is in fact made-up does not mean they're faking the made-up friend.
- rikroots 7y ago
  Sorry - I misunderstood. Are you talking about kids who will claim to have made-up friends because of peer pressure? I've not heard of that sort of thing before, but I suppose it's possible - some people/kids will tie themselves into knots just to fit in with the other kids. (Personal example: I deliberately lied about not understanding how to do long division just so I wouldn't look too clever in front of my peers - I kept up the pretence for several months.)
  - scott_s 7y ago
    Perhaps it's simplest to refer to the comment I replied to: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20565292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20565292

fouc 7y ago

I think you're underestimating the level of cognitive indirection that 5-7 year olds are capable of.