"I Believe in Santa Claus, But I Know He's Not Real": The Role of Ambivalence in Belief
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Abstract
As I will demonstrate in this article, belief is a construct through which people can express a sense of possibility, or perplexity, or personal commitment Even though they may recognize disconfirming evidence, people can also choose to act "as if" they believe (cf. Dandridge 144-146; Opie and Opie 210; and Toelken). Any evaluation falling between the extremes of "probably true" and "possibly untrue" may be characterized as an expression of ambivalence: in short, the co-existence in one person of opposing emotional attitudes about an object, phenomenon or concept.
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