UCSB Child Studies Lab

Research topics:

What is their identity? In this research game, your child (6-13) will hear a story where a character chooses to identify with one or more ethnic backgrounds and we will ask some questions about what your child thinks about the character and his/her choice. We are interested in whether children are more likely than adults to think that it is OK for people to be flexible in how they identify.

How to help? In this research game, your child (3-12) will hear a story about a character who needs an object. The character will ask their classmate to give them the object. The classmate will know that the requested object is actually broken. We are interested in whether children think the classmate is likely to help by giving the broken object (which was directly requested) or by giving a non-broken version (which was not requested). That is, do children expect people to oblige requests even if the requested action may not be very helpful? Or, do they think that people will help others reach their goals even if it means not following an exact request? We are also interested in whether these expectations shift based on the relationships between the characters in the story as well as their goals.