Which town has the formal rule?

For 8- to 11-year-old children, who speak English

Your child will hear five short stories. In these stories, there will be two groups of characters, and each group will face a different situation. In every story, both groups know that a certain behavior—called “daxing”—is not a good thing to do. But only one group has made a formal rule, like putting up a sign, to remind people not to do it.
After each story, your child will be asked to guess questions about which of the groups might do different things or be closer and argue about rules. For example, children will be asked which group they think is more likely to have the sign or where there is someone who breaks rules. There are no right or wrong answers—we just want to know what your child thinks!

We are interested in your child’s intuitions about when people need to make formal rules! For example, when do people need to put up a sign to remind others not to do something? When is it okay to just trust that everyone knows the right thing to do? Studying these questions will help us better understand how children think about rules, groups, and the social world around them—and how they might be affected by it.

15 minutes

Within about a week of completing the study, you will receive a $5 amazon gift code (Amazon.com) by email once we verify your consent video, 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.