Early Social Development Lab

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In press

Vaish, A., & Grossmann, T. (in press). How sharp is the compassion-sympathy distinction? Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

2024

Cheung, K., & Vaish, A. (2024). Putting the honor back in academic honor systems. Journal of Academic Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-024-09575-y (Open Access)

Thomas, S., Kelsey, C. M., & Vaish, A. (2024). No one is going to recess: How children evaluate collective and targeted punishment. Social Development, e12730. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12730

Schmidt, M. F. H., Vaish, A., & Rakoczy, H. (2024). Don’t neglect the middle ground, Inspector Gadget! There is ample space between Big Special and Small Ordinary norm psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 19(1), 69-71. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916231187408 [Commentary]

Beeler-Duden, S., & Vaish, A. (2024). Feeling good and feeling thankful: The role of positive emotions in sustaining early prosocial behavior. In M. D. Matthews and R. M. Lerner (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Character Development, Vol. 1 (pp. 587-610). Routledge. [pdf]

2023

*Marlow, C., *Kelsey, C. M., & Vaish, A. (2023). Cheat to win: Children’s judgments of advantageous versus disadvantageous rule breaking. Cognitive Development, 66, 101328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2023.101328 *Signifies equal contribution

McElroy, C. E., Kelsey, C. M., Oostenbroek, J., & Vaish, A. (2023). Beyond accidents: Young children’s forgiveness of third-party intentional transgressors. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 228, 105607. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105607

2022

Vaish, A. (2022). The prosocial functions of guilt in early childhood. In D. Dukes, A. Samson, and E. Walle (Eds.), Handbook of Emotion Development (pp. 513-525). Oxford University Press.

Vaish, A., & Grossmann, T. (2022). Caring for others: The early emergence of sympathy and guilt. In S. L. Hart and D. F. Bjorklund (Eds.), Evolutionary Perspectives on Infancy (pp. 349-369). Springer.

Vaish, A. (2022). The prosocial functions of guilt in early childhood. In D. Dukes, A. Samson, and E. Walle (Eds.), Handbook of Emotion Development (pp. 513-525). Oxford University Press.

*Beeler-Duden, S., *Pelletz, K., & Vaish, A. (2022). Recipient identifiability increases prosocial behavior in young children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 223, 105500. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105500 *Signifies equal contribution

Chajes, J., Grossmann, T., & Vaish, A. (2022). Fairness takes time: Development of cooperative decision making in fairness context. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 216, 105344. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105344

Vaish, A., & Savell, S. (2022). Young children value recipients who display gratitude. Developmental Psychology, 58(4), 680-692. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001308

Vaish, A., & Oostenbroek, J. (2022). Preferential forgiveness: The impact of group membership and remorse on preschoolers’ forgiveness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151(5), 1132-1140. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001114

Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2022). The early ontogeny of human cooperation and morality. In M. Killen and J. G. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of Moral Development (pp. 200-216). Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9781003047247-16 [pdf]

Yucel, M., Drell, M., Jaswal, V., & Vaish, A. (2022). Young children do not perceive distributional fairness as a moral norm. Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001349

2021

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., Kano, F., Albiach-Serrano, A., Benziad, L., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2021). Chimpanzees’ (Pan troglodytes) internal arousal remains elevated if they cannot themselves help a conspecific. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 135(2), 196-207. https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000255

Yucel, M., & Vaish, A. (2021). Eliciting forgiveness. WIREs Cognitive Science, 12(6), e1572. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1572

2020

Beeler-Duden, S., & Vaish, A. (2020). Paying it forward: The development and underlying mechanisms of upstream reciprocity. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 192, 104785. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104785

*Beeler-Duden, S., *Yucel, M., & Vaish, A. (2020). The role of affect in feelings of obligation. Brain and Behavioral Sciences. [Commentary] https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X19002449 *signifies equal contribution

Grossmann, T., Missana, M., & Vaish, A. (2020). Helping fast and slow: Exploring intuitive cooperation in early ontogeny. Cognition, 196, 104144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104144

Hepach, R., & Vaish, A. (2020). The study of prosocial emotions in early childhood: Unique opportunities and insights. Emotion Review, 12, 278-279. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073920939630 [Response to commentaries]

Vaish, A. (2020). Empathy and prosocial behavior. In J. B. Benson (Ed.), C. Brownell (Section ed.), Encyclopedia of Infant and Early Childhood Development, 2nd ed. vol. 1 (pp. 560-567). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-809324-5.21816-6

Vaish, A., & Hepach, R. (2020). The development of prosocial emotions.Emotion Review, 12, 259-273. https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073919885014 [Invited target article]

Yucel, M., Hepach, R., & Vaish, A. (2020). Young children and adults show differential arousal to moral and conventional transgressions. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00548 (Winner of the 2020 APS Albert Bandura Graduate Research Award)

2019

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., Müller, K., Tomasello, M. (2019). The relation between young children’s physiological arousal and their motivation to help others. Neuropsycholgia. 126, 113- 119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.10.010

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., Müller, K., & Tomasello, M. (2019). Toddlers’ intrinsic motivation to return help to their benefactor. Developmental Psychology, 188, 104658. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.011

Oostenbroek, J., & Vaish, A. (2019). The benefits of forgiving: Young children respond positively to those who forgive. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 148, 1914-1924. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000576

Oostenbroek, J., & Vaish, A. (2019). The emergence of forgiveness in young children. Child Development, 90, 1969-1986. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13069

Vaish, A. (2019). Something old, something new: Leveraging what we know to optimize new directions in emotion development research. Developmental Psychology, 55, 1998-2001. [Commentary] https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000774

2018

Kelsey, C., Grossmann, T., & Vaish, A. (2018). Early reputation management: Three-year-old children are more generous following exposure to eyes. Frontiers in Psychology, 9:698. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00698

Kelsey, C., Vaish, A., & Grossmann, T. (2018). Eyes, more than other facial features, enhance real-world donation behavior. Human Nature, 29, 390-401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-018-9327-1

Vaish, A. (2018). The prosocial functions of early social emotions: The case of guilt. Current Opinion in Psychology, 20, 25-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.008

Vaish, A. (2018). Sophisticated concern in early development. In N. Roughley and T. Schramme (Eds.), Forms of fellow feeling (pp. 216-242). Cambridge University Press.

Vaish, A., Hepach, R., Grossmann, T. (2018). Desire understanding in 2-year-old children: An eye-tracking study. Infant Behavior and Development, 52, 22-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2018.05.002

Vaish, A., Hepach, R., & Tomasello, M. (2018). The specificity of reciprocity: Young children reciprocate more generously to those who intentionally benefit them. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.11.005

Yucel, M. & Vaish, A. (2018). Young children tattle to enforce moral norms. Social Development, 27, 924-936. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12290

2017

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2017). The fulfillment of others’ needs elevates children’s body posture. Developmental Psychology, 53, 100-113.

Vaish, A., Kelsey, C., Tripathi, A., & Grossmann, T. (2017). Attentiveness to eyes predicts generosity in a reputation-relevant context. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38, 729-733. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.07.004

Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2017). Children’s intrinsic motivation to provide help themselves after accidentally harming others. Child Development, 88, 1251-1264. [pdf]

2016

Davidov, M., Vaish, A., Knafo-Noam, A., & Hastings, P. D. (2016). The motivational foundations of prosocial behavior from a developmental perspective – Evolutionary roots and key psychological mechanisms: Introduction to the special section. Child Development, 87, 1655-1667. [pdf]

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Young children want to see others get the help they need. Child Development, 87, 1703-1714. [pdf]

Over, H., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Do young children accept responsibility for the negative actions of ingroup members? Cognitive Development, 40, 24-32. [pdf]

*Rajhans, P., Altvater-Mackensen, N., Vaish, A., & Grossmann, T. (2016). Children’s altruistic behavior in context: The role of emotional responsiveness and culture. Scientific Reports, 6: 24089. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep24089 [pdf]

Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2016). The early emergence of guilt-motivated prosocial behavior. Child Development, 87, 1772-1782. [pdf]

Vaish, A. (2016). Flexible concern: The development of multidetermined and context-dependent empathic responding. Child Development Perspectives, 10(3). [pdf]

Vaish, A., Herrmann, E., Markmann, C., & Tomasello, M. (2016). Preschoolers value those who sanction non-cooperators. Cognition, 153, 43-51. [pdf]

2015

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Novel paradigms to measure variability of behavior in early childhood: Posture, gaze, and pupil dilation. Frontiers in Psychology, 6: 858. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00858

Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2015). Person-centred positive emotions, object-centred negative emotions: 2-year-olds generalize negative but not positive emotions across individuals. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 33, 391-397. [pdf]

2014

Jensen, K., Vaish, A., & Schmidt, M. F. H. (2014). The emergence of human prosociality: Aligning with others through feelings, concerns, and norms. Frontiers in Psychology, 5: 822. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00822

Kinzler, K., & Vaish, A. (2014). Political infants? Developmental origins of the negativity bias. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37, 318. [Commentary]

Liebal, K., Vaish, A., Haun, D., & Tomasello, M. (2014). Does sympathy motivate prosocial behavior in great apes? PLoS One, 9(1):e84299. [pdf]

Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2014). The early ontogeny of human cooperation and morality. In M. Killen and J. G. Smetana (Eds.), Handbook of Moral Development (pp. 279-298). Taylor and Francis. [link]

2013

Grossmann, T., Vaish, A., Franz, J., Schroeder, R., Stoneking, M., & Friederici, A. D. (2013). Emotional voice processing: Investigating the role of genetic variation in the serotonin transporter across development. PLoS One, 8(7): e68377. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0068377

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Young children sympathize less in response to unjustified emotional distress. Developmental Psychology, 49(6), 1132-1138. [pdf]

Tomasello, M., & Vaish, A. (2013). Origins of human cooperation and morality. Annual Reviews of Psychology, 64, 231-255. [pdf]

♦ Translated into German: Tomasello, M., & Vaish, A. (2016). Die Entstehung menschlicher Kooperation und Moral. J. Nida-Rümelin und J. Heilinger (Eds.), Moral, Wissenschaft, Wahrheit (pp. 181- 221). Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter.

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2013). A new look at children’s prosocial motivation. Infancy, 18(1), 67-90. [pdf]

Herrmann, E., Keupp, S., Hare, B., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Direct and indirect reputation formation in non-human great apes and human children. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 127(1), 63-75. [pdf]

2012

Hepach, R., Vaish, A., & Tomasello, M. (2012). Young children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped.Psychological Science, 23(9), 967-972. [pdf]

Vaish, A., & Warneken, F. (2012). Social-cognitive contributors to young children’s empathic and prosocial behavior. In J. Decety (Ed.), Empathy: From Bench to Bedside (pp. 131-146). Cambridge: MIT Press. [pdf]

2011

Grossmann, T., Johnson, M. H., Vaish, A., Hughes, D., Quinque, D., Stoneking, M., & Friederici, A. (2011). Genetic and neural dissociation of individual responses to emotional expressions in human infants. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 1(1), 57-66. [pdf]

Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2011). Young children’s responses to guilt displays. Developmental Psychology, 47(5), 1248-1262. [pdf]

Vaish, A., Demir, Ö. E., & Baldwin, D. (2011). Thirteen- and 18-month-old infants recognize when they need referential information. Social Development, 20(3), 431-449. [pdf]

Vaish, A., Missana, M., & Tomasello, M. (2011). Three-year-old children intervene in third-party moral transgressions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 29(1), 124-130. [pdf]

2010

Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2010). Young children selectively avoid helping people with harmful intentions. Child Development, 81(6), 1661-1669. [pdf]

Vaish, A., & Woodward, A. (2010). Infants use attention but not emotions to predict others’ actions. Infant Behavior and Development, 33(1), 79-87. [pdf]

2009

Vaish, A., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Sympathy through affective perspective-taking and its relation to prosocial behavior in toddlers. Developmental Psychology, 45(2), 534-543. [pdf]

♦ Reprinted in M. Killen and R. Coplan (Eds.) (2011), Social development in childhood and adolescence: A contemporary reader (pp. 48-61). Wiley-Blackwell.

2008

Grossmann, T., & Vaish, A. (2008). Reading faces: Developing a multi-level analysis of a social stimulus. In T. Striano & V. Reid (Eds.), Social cognition: Development, neuroscience and autism (pp. 167-180). Blackwell. [pdf]

Vaish, A., Grossmann, T., & Woodward, A. (2008). Not all emotions are created equal: The negativity bias in social-emotional development. Psychological Bulletin, 134(3), 383-403. [pdf]

2007

Lillard, A., Nishida, T., Massaro, D., Vaish, A., Ma, L., & McRoberts, G. (2007). Signs of pretense across age and scenario. Infancy, 11, 1-30. [pdf]

2006

Striano, T., & Vaish, A. (2006). Seven- to 9-month-old infants use facial expressions to interpret others’ actions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 753-760. [pdf]

Striano, T., Vaish, A., & Benigno, J. (2006). The meaning of infants’ looks: Information-seeking and comfort-seeking?British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 615-630. [pdf]

Striano, T., Henning, A., & Vaish, A. (2006). Selective looking by 12-month-olds to a temporally contingent partner.Interaction Studies, 7, 233-250. [pdf]

2005

Vaish, A., & Woodward, A. (2005). Baby steps on the path to understanding intentions. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 717-718. (Commentary) [pdf]

2004

Vaish, A., & Striano, T. (2004). Is visual reference necessary? Contributions of facial versus vocal cues in 12-month-olds’ social referencing behavior. Developmental Science, 7, 261-269. [pdf]