Mesmerized by the Flames
Why are fires are so mesmerizing even to adults? It turns out that the attraction to fire beyond our childhood might be a Western trait.
A 2002 study by Irene Pinsonneault of the Massachusetts Coalition for Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Program revealed children's most common questions about fire: What makes fire hot? How does a small fire grow? Why are some fires very smoky? Can everything burn? How can you keep a fire small? How can you put fires out?
In societies in which fire is an everyday tool, kids learn the answers by age 7. Ethnographic data reveals that children in most such societies study adults' control of fire from infancy, and at age 3, start experimenting with fire (including building small fires and using them to "cook" pretend food, such as mud pies). They are gradually given more responsibility over the adults' fire as they grow older, and at age 7, are generally able to control fire. Fire play starts to wind down at that stage.
According to one researcher, here in the West, many or most of us never get to that point. "The motives that drive fire learning are only incompletely satisfied, with the result that, throughout life, fire retains greater allure or fascination than would normally be the case."
For the complete article go to: news.discovery.com/human/psychology/fire-fascination-huma...
Mesmerized by the Flames
Why are fires are so mesmerizing even to adults? It turns out that the attraction to fire beyond our childhood might be a Western trait.
A 2002 study by Irene Pinsonneault of the Massachusetts Coalition for Juvenile Firesetter Intervention Program revealed children's most common questions about fire: What makes fire hot? How does a small fire grow? Why are some fires very smoky? Can everything burn? How can you keep a fire small? How can you put fires out?
In societies in which fire is an everyday tool, kids learn the answers by age 7. Ethnographic data reveals that children in most such societies study adults' control of fire from infancy, and at age 3, start experimenting with fire (including building small fires and using them to "cook" pretend food, such as mud pies). They are gradually given more responsibility over the adults' fire as they grow older, and at age 7, are generally able to control fire. Fire play starts to wind down at that stage.
According to one researcher, here in the West, many or most of us never get to that point. "The motives that drive fire learning are only incompletely satisfied, with the result that, throughout life, fire retains greater allure or fascination than would normally be the case."
For the complete article go to: news.discovery.com/human/psychology/fire-fascination-huma...