Rules and Rule-breaking

Rules and Rule-breaking

SaxeLab (Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT))

Who Can Participate

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

What Happens

In this study, your child will see a story of informal or formal rules about different behaviors, like running up the stairs or pooping on rocks, and asked how much cute characters in different towns might break rules.

What We're Studying

We are exploring how children understand rules and rule-breaking behavior in social contexts. Specifically, we aim to understand how children think about the formalization of rules and the consequences of breaking them. For instance, do children believe that the existence of formalized rules (like signs that remind someone not to do something) informs how often rules are broken? This research will help us learn more about how children interpret the social and moral world around them, including their reasoning about fairness, and group dynamics

Duration

15 minutes

Compensation

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.

This study is conducted by Rebecca Saxe (contact: hok1@mit.edu).

Would you like to participate in this study?