KNOW THE TRUTH, AND THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE: Surprising Academic Data on What Happens When Kids Learn the Truth About Santa.

Carl Anderson and Norman Prentice, psychologists at the University of Texas at Austin, recruited 52 families with elementary school-aged children and interviewed both parents and kids about the family’s experience of Santa Claus. What they found was surprising: “Children reported predominantly positive reactions on learning the truth.

Parents, however, described themselves as predominantly sad in reaction to their child’s discovery…While children experience distressful reactions such as sadness, disappointment and anger, the degree of such reactions are generally minimal and short-lived.” In fact, they were so unperturbed that 58 percent said they pretended to believe in Santa after realizing the truth—so as not to disappoint their parents.

How do children react to learning the truth?

“Children generally reported far greater occurrence of positive and negative feelings than did the parents…While reporting a wide range of feelings experienced, other data suggest that the intensity of feeling as recalled by the child was not excessive…Children who discovered the truth from their parents were, contrary to prediction, no more distressed than those who learned on their own.”

How do parents react to their kids’ discovery?

“Parents were asked to describe how they felt after their child found out the truth about Santa Claus. Sadness (40%) was the most frequently described parental feeling in relation to the event which symbolized the child’s continued maturation…Only 6% of parents indicated that they were happy or glad.”

If only people were so responsive to learning that political myths they believed in are not true.