Abstract
Two experiments examined children's understanding of the distinction between real and apparent emotion. In Experiment 1, 4-and 6-year-olds children listened to stories in which it would be appropriate for a main story protagonist (A) to feel either a positive or a negative emotion but hiding that emotion toward the other protagonist (B)(a familiar friend or a strange child). Subjects were asked to answer 3 questions: how the protagonist (A) would look, how the protagonist (A) would really feel, how the protagonist (A) would think the other protagonist (B)'s feeling, and to justify their claims. In Experiment 2, we compared the ability to understand 2nd-order mental states with their ability to distinct between a real and apparent emotion. The results indicated that even 4-year-olds showed a grasp of the understanding of second-order mental states, while 6-year-olds demonstrated their grasp of the difference between real and apparent emotion, especially when the protagonist (A) faced a strange child. These findings were discussed in relation to recent research concerning children's theories of mind.
