Let's go to Sunny School!

For 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds

Your child will hear a story about Sunny School, a school on a faraway planet. Your child will hear about how the two types of students at school are treated differently. They will watch a teacher select one student to be "class president". Afterwards, your child will answer questions about the chosen class president and why they think the student was chosen.

Gender and race gaps are pervasive in the US workforce, especially in fields like STEM. Many efforts to rectify these gaps can actually backfire by making candidates from marginalized backgrounds appear less competent. Here, we test whether preferences for marginalized vs. advantaged candidates are early-emerging. This is important: Studying the development of thinking about marginalized candidates might reveal early cognitive biases that shape perceptions of fairness, merit, and inclusion.

15 minutes

After you finish the study, we will email you a $5 Giftogram gift card within a week of participation. To be eligible for the gift card and certificate: (1) your child must be in the age range for this study, (2) English is (one of) your child's first language(s), (3) you need to submit a valid consent statement, and (4) we need to see that there is a child with you during the experiment. Each child is eligible to participate to receive a gift card only once; participants cannot do the study more than once for compensation.