Research

Humans are inordinately cooperative beings, and our ultra-cooperative, moral nature is thought to account for our success as a species. The research in our lab focuses on the ontogenetic emergence of the moral emotions, cognitions, and behaviors that make children successful cooperators. This includes the emergence of social emotions such as sympathy and guilt, of moral evaluations, and of moral behaviors such as prosocial behavior and the enforcement of moral norms. Of particular interest are children’s understanding of and responses to third-party moral situations as these are the litmus test for impersonal morality, which may well be unique to humans.

We are also interested in infant social referencing, children’s understanding of others’ desires as an early form of theory of mind, and the development of the negativity bias.

 
Current Studies

Children's Fairness Behavior Intuitive or Deliberate?

In a series of ongoing studies, we are interested in exploring how children make decisions about fairness. Specifically, we want to understand how children's fairness behavior changes across early childhood, what the cognitive processes are that underly children's choices to behave fairly or selfishly, and how individual differences in executive function may relate to their decisions about.

For more information or questions concerning these studies please contact Johanna Chajes (jrc4hw@virginia.edu).

Early Development of Forgiveness
 

Forgiveness is one key to repairing damaged relationships. Research with adults has shown that the act of forgiving and being forgiven is extremely important for sustaining relationships and for our well-being. Yet, we know very little about the ontogenetic emergence of forgiveness. In a series of studies, we are interested in understanding whether children are more likely to forgive transgressors who show remorse over those that do not, whether children are more likely to forgive their cooperation partners, and whether children value forgiveness as a trait in other people.

This research is funded by the John Templeton Foundation. Watch the video below to learn more about some of our findings on early forgiveness.

For more information or questions concerning this research, please contact Dr. Amrisha Vaish (vaish@virginia.edu).

Resource Inequality