Let's draw circles together!

For 4-6 year olds who are based in the United States and understand English.

In this study, your child will be asked to draw circles on multiple pieces of paper that represent different relationships (e.g., friends, siblings, strangers) and hold them up to the camera. You will need seven (7) pieces of paper and a marker or dark crayon.

Past research has shown that children as young as 4 years old can distinguish between close relationships (like siblings or friends) and distant ones (like strangers). However, we know much less about how children mentally represent the closeness between people in different relationships. In this study, we ask children to draw two circles representing two people who know each other (or don't), and we look at features of their drawings to see if they reflect how close the child thinks those two people are. Gaining insight into how children think about relationships matters because it can shed light on how social understanding develops in early childhood and may help us design better tools for studying children's social worlds.

15 minutes

You will receive a $5 gift card from Amazon (Amazon.com) within a week by email once we verify your consent video and that your child is in the correct age range. To be valid, consent videos need to show the caregiver of the child who is participating. Your child should be visible during the study. Only one gift card per child is available.