Children's preference for social stories.

Many scholars have proposed theories to explain the appeal of fictional stories, but relatively little research has examined this issue from a developmental perspective. Here, we investigate the role that social and mental content play in attracting children to stories. In Experiment 1, 4- to 8-year-old children preferred stories that contained people over those that focused on objects. In Experiment 2, children preferred stories with mental content over stories that were described purely in terms of action, while in Experiment 3, children preferred stories with more characters to those with fewer but did not prefer stories that contained mental states embedded in other mental states. No age effects were found. These results are discussed in terms of theories of fiction, and directions are suggested for future research.