Psychology Colloquium: Jerome Kagan Memorial Lecture ~ Katherine McAuliffe, PhD ~ Boston College

Guest speaker:  Katherine McAuliffe, Ph.D. and Associate Professor of Psychology, Boston College:

 Jerome Kagan Memorial Lecture

Topic: "Playground Economics" 

When we think of economics, what first pops into mind might be interest rates, market indices, or mathematical formulas. Children probably wouldn’t make the list. Fundamentally, though, economics concerns the consumption, production, and transfer of resources. Through this lens, children function as strategic economic decision-makers from their earliest years. I will present work exploring how children reason about and interact with resources both in individual as well as social contexts. In part one, I will discuss research revealing that children reason flexibly about the value of resources. In part two, I will focus on studies showing that children make strategic decisions about when and how many resources to transfer to others in dyadic and small groups contexts. In part three, I will review studies demonstrating that children’s behavior is shaped by high-level economic factors, including norms and institutions, and that they exhibit patterns of decision-making that express an understanding of economic concepts like wealth and inequality. In the discussion, I will broaden the scope with an evolutionary perspective, thinking about how natural selection has shaped young animals’ relationship with resources.

Additional details coming soon.