Infants' Understanding of Shared Emotional Experiences

For 10- to 11- months

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Participate Now!” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. In this Zoom-based study, your child will watch animations featuring characters (3D shapes with eyes) who respond to each other, as the characters are either sad or happy.

Previous research suggests that infants prefer individuals who provide social support. We want to further study infants’ understanding of social support. We are curious about whether babies think people are closer friends when they spend time with someone who is feeling sad, compared to when they spend time with someone who is feeling happy. This study will present infants with a character who is responsive to a protagonist’s distress, and another character who is instead responsive to the same protagonist’s happiness. We will examine whether infants expect the protagonist to prefer the character who was responsive to their distress. This research will shed light on how infants think about the sharing of emotions within close relationships.

30 minutes

Children will receive a $5 online gift card and (if requested) a certificate of participation, within 24 hours of participating over Zoom. To receive the gift card and certificate, the child must be within the age range for our study. Each child will only receive one gift card. We can compensate participants with an Amazon US gift card, or with an alternative online gift card. We'll ask you about what gift cards work for your family, and we'll work with our lab manager to get you a suitable gift card.