What's in a Hug?

This online study is for babies between 1 year and 8 months to 2 years and 15 days of age.

Your baby will watch characters of different sizes interact (by hugging or dancing together), and then one of the characters will show an emotion like crying. We will measure where your baby looks on screen in response. We will ask you to either seat your baby in a high chair or hold your baby in your lap, and look down from the screen to remain neutral.

In this study, we want to understand if babies can recognize caregiving relationships. Your baby will see videos in which some characters hug each other or dance together. We will see if babies use the relationships between characters and their physical sizes to predict who will comfort another character. Previous studies suggest that babies can use cues of closeness to understand relationships. In the present study, we want to know if babies will think a character will comfort another character based on their size.

10-15 minutes

You will receive a $5 online gift card for your participation. We will compensate you with an Amazon US gift card or an alternative online gift card (e.g., Target, gift cards in other currencies if desired, etc.). To receive this payment, your baby will need to be within our specified age range and your baby will need to be visible throughout the video. You will only receive one gift card per baby. You will receive payment within 2 weeks of participation.