Current Projects
Development of Childhood Honesty
Collaborator: Victoria Talwar
Most children lie. Although the occasional lie is not a cause for concern, children who frequently engage in “antisocial” lie-telling for self-serving purposes are at an increased risk for future behavioral problems. Yet not all “antisocial” lies have consequences for others’ rights and wellbeing. This project will examine how child think and behave in everyday situations involving honesty and lie telling.
Children's Understanding of Fairness (Project CUF) Collaborator: Judith G. Smetana
Life is filled with decisions about how to fairly distribute resources, ranging from the mundane (e.g., slicing a child’s birthday cake) to the extreme (e.g., allocating life-saving equipment during a global pandemic). When and how do children start to consider the consequences of unfairness for those who are disadvantaged? And how are children’s judgments of unfairness and inequality similar to and distinct from those of adults? To address these questions, we are conducting interviews with children (4- to 8-year-olds) and adults to gain insight into their evaluations and reasoning about situations where resources are unfairly distributed amongst peers.
