Poor People Less Likely to Believe in Santa?

[hgc]

From this article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061223/ap_on_fe_st/angels_and_santa_ap_poll) about how the vast majority of Americans believe in angels, in one form or another, comes this interesting little stat:

91 percent of whites believed in Santa as a child; 72 percent of minorities did. One quarter of those now living in households with incomes under $25,000 did not believe in Santa.
First, I'm assuming that the % of minorities vs non-minorities in this stat merely dovetails with what's really interesting -- poor people less likely to believe in Santa. (Quick word of complaint about crappy journalist who can't present statistics in anything like a coherent manner: 2 measures are presented as % who believe and the 3rd measure is a % who don't believe -- leaving us no basis for direct comparison, assuming the believers + non-believers = <100% in the survey!!!) This is really quite believable. If the principle basis for belief in Santa for children is fat, juicy presents under the tree on Christmas morning, then yeah, poor kids might not be believers. Or more likely, since the belief if generated by the parents, it's they, unable to afford presents, who may neglect this particular lesson in popular myth instruction.

I like this because it's such a tangible example of the connection between our myths and our real lives.

[Skeptical Greg]

Lots of room for questions..........

Were the people who didn't believe in Santa as a child, actually taught there was a Santa by their parents, or did they just hear about it from other sources ?

[ImaginalDisc]

From this article (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061223/ap_on_fe_st/angels_and_santa_ap_poll) about how the vast majority of Americans believe in angels, in one form or another, comes this interesting little stat:


First, I'm assuming that the % of minorities vs non-minorities in this stat merely dovetails with what's really interesting -- poor people less likely to believe in Santa. (Quick word of complaint about crappy journalist who can't present statistics in anything like a coherent manner: 2 measures are presented as % who believe and the 3rd measure is a % who don't believe -- leaving us no basis for direct comparison, assuming the believers + non-believers = <100% in the survey!!!) This is really quite believable. If the principle basis for belief in Santa for children is fat, juicy presents under the tree on Christmas morning, then yeah, poor kids might not be believers. Or more likely, since the belief if generated by the parents, it's they, unable to afford presents, who may neglect this particular lesson in popular myth instruction.

I like this because it's such a tangible example of the connection between our myths and our real lives.

Wait a second, you can't assume that demographic figures on ethnicity somehow are meangingful regarding wealth. There's plenty of minorities that wouldn't have any reason to believe in Santa, such as Jews, Hindus, Muslims and in many latin American countries, the gift giving mythical figures of Christmas are the Three Kings, not Santa Claus.

[blutoski]

I like this because it's such a tangible example of the connection between our myths and our real lives.

I think ImaginalDisc hit the nail on the head: "minorities" does not necessarily translate into income.

In my wife's case, she didn't believe in Santa as a kid, because she was raised Baptist. They're all about Jesus on Christmas. They were not poor, by any interpretation.

[Freethinker]

I'd have to say that one of my first "that doesn't make sense" moments of critical thinking had to do with Santa Claus. At about 7 or 8 years of age, the thought occured to me that if Santa was real, poor children would get the same kinds of presents as rich children, assuming they behaved similarly. When I was getting a board game, a new winter hat and some candy, one of my classmates got a motorcycle and a remote control plane.

2+2=4, no matter how many people tell you it's 5. Poor people face reality everyday. No matter how well they behave, Santa won't bring them expensive presents. No matter how much they pray, god won't make them wealthy.