Modern Children and Belief in Magic: A Scientific Perspective on Myths of Santa Claus and Grandfather Frost Introduction: The Resilience of Cultural Archetypes The belief in gift-givers such as Santa Claus in the West and Grandfather Frost in Slavic countries represents an intriguing cultural and psychological phenomenon. Despite the digital age and early access to information, these characters demonstrate remarkable resilience. Modern research in the field of developmental cognitive psychology and anthropology shows that belief in such myths not only persists but also serves important developmental functions. Cognitive Mechanisms of Belief From the perspective of cognitive development, children aged 3–7 years are in the stage Jean Piaget labeled as preoperational. For this period, magical realism is characteristic — the ability to believe in extraordinary events without the need for empirical evidence. Neurobiological studies (such as those by Jaclyn Woolley from the University of Texas) show that the brain of children at this age does not strictly differentiate between reality and fantasy at the neuronal level. An interesting fact: MRI experiments demonstrate that when children describe a meeting with Grandfather Frost, the same areas of the prefrontal cortex are activated as when recalling real events. Impact of the Digital Environment Paradoxically, access to the internet and smartphones does not destroy belief but often transforms it. Children of the 2020s can simultaneously believe in Grandfather Frost and freely use YouTube. A Cambridge University (2021) study among children aged 4–8 in the UK and Russia showed that 68% of respondents believe in the existence of a New Year's gift-giver, despite the possibility of finding "exposing" information online. The key factor was not the presence of information but trust in the authority of parents — if adults support the myth, children tend to accept it, filtering out contradictory data from the internet. Cultural Dif ... Read more