Promises on the go: A field study on keeping one's word

Promises are voluntary commitments to perform a future action and are often thought to be powerful levers for behavioral change. Here we studied the effectiveness of promises in two preregistered, incentivized field experiments with German students (N = 406) on the premises of a cafeteria. In Experiment 1, the majority of participants (63%) kept their promise to pay back at least half of a € 4-endowment, even though there was no foreseeable cost of breaking the promise, reputational or otherwise. Significantly fewer participants (22%) paid back money in a control group that faced a simple decision to return money or not. In Experiment 2, the majority of participants (54%) kept their promise to add a provided stamp to a postcard and mail it back (anonymously) within a week. We found similar return rates (52%) for a second group for which the word “promise” was omitted from the commitment. Our findings show that participants kept their word outside the laboratory while pursuing everyday activities even when there were no foreseeable negative consequences for breaking them, demonstrating that promises are effective levers for behavioral change

Children strategically decide what to practice

Adjusting practice to different goals and task characteristics is pivotal for learning, but it is unclear how this essential skill develops. Across 2 preregistered experiments, 190 children aged 4-8 years (106 female) and 31 adults played an easy and a difficult game and were informed that they would later be tested on either the easy, the difficult, or a randomly chosen game. Before the test, they could practice one of the two games. We found that children and adults selectively chose to practice whichever game they will be tested on. Critically, in the Random condition children and adults chose to practice the difficult game to minimize losses, suggesting that even 4-year-olds understand how to prepare for an unknown future

The Role of Causal Stability in Children's Active Exploration

Previous research documented adults’ preference for stable causal relationships that do not vary in strength across backgrounds (Vasilyeva, Blanchard, & Lombrozo, 2018). In this study, we investigate the role of causal stability in guiding children’s exploration behavior. We developed a computerized version of an active information-search paradigm to study how children dynamically explore different agents and backgrounds to learn more about their causal stability. Five- to seven-year-old children (n = 60) were presented with stable and unstable causes (i.e., causes with fixed or variable causal efficacy across backgrounds). We assessed children’s causal attributions of outcomes and their exploratory behavior as they tried out previously observed and novel causes across previously observed and novel backgrounds. We find that children in this age range acknowledge causal instability in their causal attributions, and they become increasingly adept at tracking causal efficacy across multiple factors simultaneously (causes and backgrounds), but this does not translate into a blanket preference for exploring stable or unstable causes. We suggest a possibility that causal (in)stability guides exploration in more subtle and indirect ways and discuss the implications of our findings for the development of active exploration

Study plan - Study 2

study plan for a study on social decision making (study 2

Study plan-Study 1

study plan for a study on social decision makin

Promises on the go: A field study on word-keeping

A field study on social decision makin

Preschoolers select the relevant information when looking for a hidden present

Previous research suggests that children’s information search remains largely inefficient until age 4. Here, we investigate the early emergence of children’s information-search competence using a simplified version of Lindow’s (2021) finding-presents game. Children (n = 86, 24- to 59-months old) had to find a present hidden in one of three closed boxes. All boxes were identical but for one feature (e.g., all boxes were blue and had a flower icon on top, but one box was round, one heart-shaped, and one squared). To identify the target box, children received three information cards revealing one feature of the target box (i.e., its color, shape, or icon). As the boxes differed in only one feature (e.g., their shape), only one information card contained the relevant information to the decision (i.e., the information card indicating the correct shape). Children could flip one information card to learn about one particular feature before deciding which box to open. This was our dependent measure. Our findings indicate that children as young as 2 years can efficiently search for information to guide their decisions and underline the importance of using age-appropriate paradigms