Do children expect people to be fair or to favor their friends?

For 4- to 7-year-olds

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 appointment, your child will hear a short story about a protagonist who chooses to help one person but not another. We will then ask your child who they think the protagonist will help in new situations.

Recent research from our lab has shown that children can use their observations of people's helpful and unhelpful behavior to determine who they think is "nicer" and will be more likely to help other people in the future. In this study, we test if children expect someone who helps one person, but chooses to not help a second person in a similar way, will be more likely to favor the person they helped originally. Alternatively, children may expect the protagonist to act fairly and alternate between helping the two people. This study will help us better understand if children can use their observations of people helping others to understand specific relationships.

10 minutes

You will receive a $5 gift card to the Amazon US site (https://www.amazon.com/) for completing this study. In order to receive this payment, your child will need to be within our specified age range, your child will need to be visible throughout the video, and you will need to participate using a laptop or computer (no cell phones or tablets). You will only be able to receive one gift card per child. You will receive payment within 1 week of participation.