Nicknames and Social Relationships

For 6- to 10-year-olds

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 answer questions about characters' names. Your child will also answer questions about their own nicknames and real people who use or don't use them. For children without existing nicknames, your child will create a nickname and answer questions about imaginary characters instead of real people.

In this study, we want to understand how children think about nicknames in their own and others' social relationships. We know that children think that characters who call a protagonist by a nickname are in a close social relationship. However, we do not know whether children think in that way about people in their own lives. We think children will feel closer to people in their own lives (and new people) who call them by a nickname rather than their actual name.

20 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.