Paracosms!

[eve_prime]

I’ve mentioned before that one of my favorite faculty members in the UO psych department is Marjorie Taylor, who researches imaginary friends. Today I went to the first year project talk by one of her students, Jacob Levernier, who’s researching imaginary worlds, or paracosms. Really interesting stuff! Here’s a description of his work from a recent newspaper article:

“Levernier estimated that 12 percent of children engage in these elaborate, detailed pretend universes, although all previous studies have only involved adults retrospectively reporting their childhood imagination. Levernier’s study will be the first to actively engage children and their imaginary worlds as they create them.

He cites an example of two children, both friends, who have participated in earlier studies, and will take part in Levernier’s upcoming study.

Together, the children created a joint paracosm, complete with a constitution and governing rules, but eventually, as the children matured, each wanted to take their imaginary society in a different direction, and the two split.

The world of one child is set in a retro time similar to the 1940s and is a utopian society based on democracy and kindness. The other world, in a stark contrast, is set in the future, has a totalitarian government which often times declares war on the utopian society, even to the point of sometimes bombing it.

The children remain friends, though their worlds are at definite odds.”

Now he’s researching whether children who create paracosms are more advanced in moral development than their peers. They’ve gotten funding from the Templeton Foundation for this work. Cool!