Fantasy–Reality Distinction

The Concept of Fantasy versus Reality

In 1977, Robert Hawkins published an influential article that summarized some of the supposed effects of television content that varied as a function of children's perceptions of the reality of that content. However, in his review of this literature, Hawkins noted that measures of perceived reality varied widely and that this fact gave rise to a question about the nature of the concept itself. The remainder of his article was devoted to the conceptual and empirical nature of judgments about the reality of television content and introduced notions that became seminal in the literature. Hawkins introduced four different dimensions that might capture how children conceive the notion of television reality. The first dimension includes a continuum that ranges from perceptions of television content as a “magic window” of reality (where television is simply a separate window in which everything is just as real as events that happen [Page 329]anywhere else) to perceptions of television content as purely dramatic depictions. A second dimension deals with expectations about life and includes judgments on a continuum that ranges from television events matching social expectations about the world or failing to match those expectations. A third dimension, specificity, involves the possibility that children's perceptions about reality might differ depending upon the level of specificity of the questions that they are asked about television content. Finally, a fourth dimension involves the possibility that children's perceptions of reality might vary depending upon whether those perceptions are about television characters, events, or the usefulness of those characters and events for everyday life. Hawkins gathered some empirical support for these dimensions and made it clear that there were developmental differences in perceptions of television's reality on these dimensions.

Building upon Hawkins' research, John Flavell and his colleagues studied how 3- and 4-year-olds interpreted various television images. They found that 4-year-olds tend to distinguish between real objects and televised depictions of those objects. However, 3-year-olds showed a tendency to perceive televised depictions as real, physical objects. For example, they tended to believe that the juice would come out of a glass that was shown on television if the television set itself were turned upside down. The researchers noted that this sort of judgment error was not confined to televised images but extended to simple two-dimensional photographs. They proposed a four-step developmental sequence to describe how children gradually learn to distinguish between television content that is real or realistic and that which is not.

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