Magical mommy kisses and the meaning effect
Having a seven-year old son means an almost endless series of grazes, knocks and bruises. My go-to response is to kiss it better. Even though he is rapidly shrugging off believing in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy (“it’s a tooth mouse mom, fairies don’t exist”), both he and I happily participate in the illusion of magical mommy kisses. But is it an illusion? For most of these minor injuries mommy kisses do seem to help. The explanation that makes the most sense to me is what researchers refer to as the meaning effect or meaning response: “We define the meaning [...]