Who's Keeping Track?

4- and 5-year-olds and 7- and 8-year-old who can understand and speak English

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. Your child will hear short stories about two people reciprocating an action (i.e., repeating an action that was previously done to them), but express their intentions in different ways (either thinking or saying it aloud). For example, children will hear that one character gives another a gift, “and thinks to herself, ‘I got her a gift because she gave me a gift at my birthday party last week,’ but doesn’t say it out loud.” Children will then be asked questions about each character such as who they’d rather be friends with and how nice/mean they are.

Reciprocity—the social norm of returning an action with an act of similar or equal value—is one of the foundations of human cooperation. In order to express it, we need to keep track of who to reciprocate with, but how appropriate is it to make this tracking known? Some work with adults suggests that it is appropriate only in certain situations, but little is known about how recognition of this social norm develops. This study seeks to address this and explore how judgments about reciprocity and expressions of it develop in order to understand what shapes children’s cooperation.

20 minutes

Participants will be emailed a $5 (US dollars) Amazon.com gift card by the following Monday after the study. To receive the gift card, the child must be between the ages of 4- to 5- and 7- to 8-years-old, and the child must be visible during the entire session. Children can only participate and receive compensation once.