Believing in Santa Claus doesn’t make children act nicer at Christmas

Santa Claus Alone is Not Enough for a Happy Christmas

He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, but Santa’s festive surveillance seemingly does nothing to improve children’s behaviour. Instead, it may be that wider Christmas rituals, like putting up a tree and going caroling, can prompt children to be a bit nicer – a finding that may help us better understand how religion influences behavior.

“The question was, does belief in Santa Claus influence how children behave?” says Rohan Kapitány at Durham University in the UK. “Does this belief,…