Moral Imagination and Kid's Pretend Play

For 4- to 7- year olds who speak English

This study asks your child to determine if characters are real or pretend, if they would like to play a variety of games that contain different moral themes, and to respond to stories that contain moral judgements. After your child is done, there is a brief (5 min) survey for you, the primary caregiver.

(Note: this study does involve mention of pretend harm such as hitting and pushing, and fictional death, but they are themes that organically occur in children's pretense)

Children can demonstrate all sorts of moral behaviors in their pretend play, and can bring their real-world moral judgements into pretend. Though little is known about how kids want to engage with moral actions in their pretend. The purpose of this study is to explore how children do or do not engage with different moral themes within their pretend play and if it is related to real world morality judgements. This will be studied by how your child responds to stories with moral actions, and "good" guys and "bad" guys in their games.

about 15 minutes for children, 5 minutes for Caregiver

There is no compensation for this study, but your child may have fun!