ABSTRACT
From early on, children are exposed to different types of stories. Some stories, such as biographical recollections, involve actual characters and events, whereas others, for example, fairytales, involve invented characters and events. Children are also exposed to religious stories where ordinarily impossible events are presented as credible accounts of events that actually occurred. To what degree are young children sensitive to the distinctions between these different types of stories? How do they evaluate the reality status of the events and the characters in them? We argue that children distinguish among story types guided by their understanding of everyday causality.
