Lions, tigers, aliens, oh my!

For children 4 to 10 years old

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. During the session, your child will first choose between two pretend groups (Lions or Tigers). The researcher will then introduce three different games using friendly alien characters. Some games will be described as fun, while others will be described as too hard or too boring for kids in your child’s group. Children will rate how much they want to play each game using thumbs-up and thumbs-down pictures and then play one of them. The game is very similar to a Spot-the-Difference task, in which they will search for the difference between two pictures.

Children often hear stereotypes about what activities are “right” or “wrong” for their group. This study examines how children respond to those messages and how they decide which activities they want to try. Using a novel groups experiment (kids will be part of the "Lions" or "Tigers"), we are interested in children's interest and persistence when a game is described as being too hard for their group (an ability stereotype), compared to when it is described as too boring (an interest stereotype). This study will help us understand which stereotypes children challenge spontaneously, and which stereotypes children may need more help from adults to resist.

15 minutes

Participants will receive a $3 Tango digital gift card for participating in the study. To be compensated, the child must be in the age range, the child needs to be visible at some point, and each child may only receive compensation one time. Participants will receive compensation by the following Monday.