Human cooperation often occurs in contexts that are characterized by conflicts between individual- and collective interests. With a focus on young children (4-12 year old), this project examines the early development of prosocial mindsets and cooperation. These abilities are crucial in light of pressing societal issues that necessitate broad scale cooperation (e.g., refugee-, climate- and the corona crisis). But how can we enhance a prosocial mindset and cooperation at a young age? And how can we combat distrust and discrimination and increase social solidarity across group boundaries early in life? We tackle these questions by combining insights and methods from social, developmental, cognitive, and educational psychology, social neuroscience, as well as sociology (e.g., networks) and experimental economics (e.g., economic games).
In six experimental studies, we aim to develop and administer a variety of child-friendly tasks, including basic social judgment tasks, social mindfulness tasks, social decision making tasks, and economic games. We also aim to include cognitive (e.g., eye tracking), neuroimaging (portable EEG) and/or physiological (e.g., heart rate variability) measures to complement behavioral measures of prosociality and cooperation. Data collection will take place online, at our VU-laboratory or by visiting schools, after school daycares and museums (e.g. NEMO).
As a PhD candidate, you will work in close cooperation with the Social Educational Neuroscience Amsterdam (SENSA) team. Within the SENSA team, you will be part of a multidisciplinary group, including senior and more junior faculty members. Your project will be supervised by Dr. Jellie Sierksma, Dr. Nikki Lee, and Prof. Dr. Paul van Lange. More information on SENSA can be found here: www.socialeducationalneuroscience.com
Your dutiesYour main tasks and responsibilities include:
- Developing and programming of the tasks
- Data collection: recruitment and participant testing
- Data analysis
- Manuscript preparation
- Presentation of results at national and international conferences