Waynesburg University biologist Wayne Rossiter, author of Shadow of Oz: Theistic Evolution and the Absent God, talks about how the trick is done in a 2014 study, for example,
The abstract is fairly provocative: “Children who went to church or were enrolled in a parochial school, or both, judged the protagonist in religious stories to be a real person, whereas secular children with no such exposure to religion judged the protagonist in religious stories to be fictional. Children’s upbringing was also related to their judgment about the protagonist in fantastical stories that included ordinarily impossible events whether brought about by magic (Study 1) or without reference to magic (Study 2). Secular children were more likely than religious children to judge the protagonist in such fantastical stories to be fictional…The results suggest that exposure to religious ideas has a powerful impact on children’s differentiation between reality and fiction, not just for religious stories but also for fantastical stories.” Abstract:(open access)More. – Kathleen H. Corriveau Eva E. Chen Paul L. Harris, Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds, Cognitive Science, 04 July 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12138
Rossiter responds,
Joseph is a well-known biblical character, not someone a 5-6 year old has never heard of. So, the name Joseph is going to instill trust in the story for those who have any religious background. The researchers should’ve said “This is Charlie. He went fishing…,” etc. Worse, they use the same character in three consecutive stories (in their appendix they detail that they did this for the other stories as well). If the first story was one a religious kid would trust because it involves a known biblical character (Joseph) and God’s miraculous work, that will affect subsequent stories about Joseph. You’ve tainted the child’s perception of who Joseph is, and what kinds of things can happen to him.Wayne Rossiter, “How to do exceptionally biased (lousy) science” at Shadow of Oz
But then, in the world of almost unbelievably enormous hoaxes on social science profs, why need we expect anything different? They know they can get away with it.
See also: Putting a respectable face on persecuting the social justice science hoaxers
Embattled “Social Sciences Hoax” Prof Is Not A Hero, He’s A Canary
Social Science Hoaxer’s Job At Risk For Revealing “Bias”
Sokal hoaxes strike social science again
Exposing gender studies as a Sokal hoax
Social Science Hoax Papers Is One Of RealClearScience’s Top Junk Science Stories Of 2018
and
Alan Sokal, Buy Yourself A Latte: “Star Wars” Biology Paper Accepted