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Visiting Santa: another look.

John Trinkaus1

  • 1Zichlin School of Business Baruch College, City University of New York, USA.

Psychological Reports
|September 22, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Most children (82%) appeared indifferent when meeting Santa Claus, contrary to expectations. This surprising finding prompted a replication study in 2004 to further investigate children's reactions.

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Area of Science:

  • Child Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Conventional wisdom suggests children are typically exhilarated to meet Santa Claus.
  • An informal observation in 2003 indicated a high percentage of indifference in children's facial expressions.
  • This unexpected finding warranted further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate children's typical emotional responses when meeting Santa Claus.
  • To replicate an informal observation on children's facial expressions during Santa Claus encounters.
  • To compare observed reactions with expected emotional responses.

Main Methods:

  • Observational study of children's facial expressions.
  • Data collection during Santa Claus encounters in a queuing setting.
  • Replication of the study in a subsequent year (2004) to validate initial findings.

Main Results:

  • In 2003, 82% of 300 children appeared indifferent while queuing to meet Santa Claus.
  • The high rate of indifference challenged common assumptions about children's excitement.
  • The study was replicated to confirm the initial observation.

Conclusions:

  • Children's reactions to meeting Santa Claus may be less enthusiastic than commonly believed.
  • Further research is needed to understand the factors influencing children's emotional responses in this context.
  • The observed indifference suggests a need to re-evaluate assumptions in child psychology regarding holiday figures.

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