#589 Ashley Thomas: Naïve Sociology, and How Children Think About Hierarchies and Social Relations
RECORDED ON NOVEMBER 8th 2021.
Dr. Ashley Thomas is a postdoctoral fellow at the center for research on open and equitable scholarship at MIT. She is interested in humans as a social species. She investigates what infants, toddlers, and children think about social relationships (i.e., their naive sociology). She has studied how they think and feel about social hierarchy (i.e. situations where there is a ‘winner’ and a ‘loser’ or when someone is ‘in charge.’). Currently, she is working with Elizabeth Spelke and Rebecca Saxe, and they are investigating how infants interpret social interactions that involve their own caregivers as well as how infants, toddlers, and children think about social intimacy. She has also studied people’s moral judgments of parenting decisions.
In this episode, we talk about developmental psychology. We focus a lot on children’s naïve sociology, and how they think about social relationships. We get into issues surrounding social hierarchy, how children think about helpers and hinderers, winners and losers, and low and high-ranking individuals. We talk about the kinds of leaders children prefer. We discuss what children learn from social interactions involving their own caregivers, and how they think about social intimacy. Finally, we discuss the relation between people’s theories of intelligence and beliefs about brain development, and parenting.
Time Links:
Intro
Naïve sociology, and how children think about social relationships
How infants deal with helpers and hinderers
How children evaluate others in terms of social hierarchy
How human societies get structured
How children think about winners and losers
Leadership, and the kinds of leaders children prefer
Low and high-ranking individuals
Social interactions that involve caregivers
Social intimacy
Theories of intelligence, beliefs about brain development, and parenting
Parenting in modern society
Follow Dr. Thomas’ work!
Follow Dr. Thomas’ work:
University page: https://bit.ly/3xAwjcV
Website: https://bit.ly/3cTQ6vZ
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/35IH6Gh
Twitter handle: @AshleyJ_Thomas