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In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, George convinces Ron that the following nonsensical poem is a spell:

"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,

Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

But Ron has grown up in a wizarding home, and has presumably heard his parents and siblings using spells all his life. Every other spell, including simple household spells, has a short, Latinate (or occasionally English) incantation like Lumos, Aguamenti, Accio, Wingardium Leviosa, etc., etc. So how could he believe that this poem is a spell? Is there an in-universe explanation for this?

Luke
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    Rons kind of stupid... – Himarm May 04 '15 at 13:31
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    Ron also half-believed they had to wrestle a troll for the Sorting. Dude was 11 years old, and basically hero-worshipped the twins. Plus, given their exploits, Fred and George could be convincing liars when they wanted to. Not the first case of a younger child believing something ridiculous on the word of an older sibling. – DavidS May 04 '15 at 13:35
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    Because he's a schmuck. – Valorum May 04 '15 at 14:13
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    Fred and George are master pranksters. Who’s to say one didn’t claim to demonstrate this spell on Scabbers, while the other cast a real colour change charm from the shadows? – alexwlchan May 04 '15 at 15:11
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    It might be that Ron actually did not knew much about spells. Recall that Weasley's are such a family where both parents and eldest children knew about the Triwizard Tournament, but did not let the youngsters know the secret on principle. It is perfectly possible that Weasley parents are taking special care not to expose their young children to magic until they come of schooling age. – sampathsris May 04 '15 at 15:33
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    Why do kids believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and Wrestling? Any adult knows those things aren't real! Stupid kids... – WernerCD May 04 '15 at 16:43
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    Let's not forget that Seamus tries to turn water into rum using a rhyme of his own. – Eckert May 04 '15 at 17:57
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    Think about how many stupid things you believed at age 11... – Whelt May 05 '15 at 15:11
  • @Richard: or possibly his brothers are schmucks, and he's a schlimazel. – Steve Jessop May 05 '15 at 19:10
  • Don't forget, the twins almost got him to make an Unbreakable Vow to be their slave when he was pre-Hogwarts. – Jeff Jan 07 '18 at 23:03
  • @WernerCD In my experience, most eleven-year-olds don’t believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny. I don’t have much experience with how many eleven-year-olds believe wrestling isn’t fake, but I certainly didn’t at that age. Six-year-olds, perhaps. Not eleven-year-olds. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 08 '18 at 00:30
  • @Valorum Please don't put valid answers in comments! XD – Tashus Jan 18 '19 at 19:24

4 Answers4

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First let me say that I don't believe it is a real spell.

The thing we need to realize is that Ron did not know enough spells to differentiate between fake and real spells. Mr and Mrs Weasley would have used Nonverbal Spells at home.

We also know that Ron blindly trusted his brothers which is normal at that age.

Instance 1:

“So we’ve just got to try on the hat!” Ron whispered to Harry. “I’ll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll.”

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 7, The Sorting Hat

Instance 2:

“I’d worked that much out for myself, funnily enough. What happens if you break it, then?”

“You die,” said Ron simply. “Fred and George tried to get me to make one when I was about five. I nearly did too, I was holding hands with Fred and everything when Dad found us. He went mental,” said Ron, with a reminiscent gleam in his eyes. “Only time I’ve ever seen Dad as angry as Mum, Fred reckons his left buttock has never been the same since.”

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 16, A Very Frosty Christmas

Most probably Ron was nervous after all he had five brothers who have been to Hogwarts, he would have definitely been nervous. Knowing Fred and George those guys would have thought it was fun to scare Ron.

Generally younger siblings trust their elder siblings. My brother had me believing in lots of silly stuff when I was a kid!

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Vishvesh
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Who says the spell doesn't work? As far as we know he only tried it on Animagus, which hardly qualifies as an intended target.

Zikato
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Most likely he believed it because it is a real spell. The 'Colour Change Charm' is mentioned in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, explicitly in relation to the ability to change the colour of a rat:

On the whole, Harry thought it went rather well. His Levitation Charm was certainly much better than Malfoy’s had been, though he wished he had not mixed up the incantations for Colour Change and Growth Charms, so that the rat he was supposed to be turning orange swelled shockingly and was the size of a badger before Harry could rectify his mistake.

As to why it didn't work, you can choose from the current answers;

  • @Zikato's suggestion that it failed because Scabbers is no ordinary rat seems plausible.

  • @Vishvesh's suggestion that Ron's brothers had intentionally taught him a wrong incantation (for their own amusement) also seems pretty plausible as well.

  • There are also other spells (eat slugs!) that seem to operate in English.

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Valorum
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    I think the real question is "how could he believe it was the correct formulation of the spell" and not "how could he believe the intended effected (color change) existed as a spell" – Kalissar May 04 '15 at 15:29
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    What @Kalissar said. The question is "Why did Ron believe 'Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow' is a spell?" not "Why did Ron believe that there was a spell to turn a rat yellow?" – starsplusplus May 04 '15 at 16:29
  • @starsplusplus - The clear implication of the chapter is that he believed because a) He knows that such a spell does exist b) because that was what he was told by his brothers and c) because he's a dope. – Valorum May 04 '15 at 16:39
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    Eat slugs, nice catch! – Don_Biglia May 05 '15 at 06:36
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    Also, the spell does sound plausible, being loosely based on a well-known Lesley Gore song (sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows). – Damon May 06 '15 at 07:41
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    As http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/59237/is-eat-slugs-an-actual-incantation shows, the 'eat slugs' spell is simply being cast non-verbally. In the films they had Ron shout this out for effect, and to make it clear what he was casting. – Cronax May 06 '15 at 12:09
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    Good answer. I would say that the whole "eat slugs" thing was not necessarily the actual incantation, though. "Point me" or Wormtail's litany about "blood of the enemy" etc. seem more clear examples. – Adamant Nov 15 '16 at 02:21
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I think we are forgetting about the changing water into rum spell that is seen later:

Eye of rabbit, harp string hum, turn this water into rum.

This indicates that these more poetic spells do exist or at least thought to exist by more students than just the younger brother of two pranksters.

Valorum
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dreamingonacloud
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    If memory serves, this spell also backfires without having the desired effect; http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Eye_of_rabbit,_harp_string_hum,_turn_this_water_into_rum. It's not clear if it works or if it's just another joke played by the Weasley twins. – Valorum Jan 07 '18 at 22:56