Boston College Cooperation Lab

One of our fantastic summer interns Emani Sawyer just published her first novel and we couldn’t be more excited! Word of Mouth is available now on Amazon and Kindle. Follow the Instagram page

About: This is a story of a little girl named Diana. She was doing perfectly fine before she started middle school, and realized her words had power. Now, with the help of her friends, and the school's janitor as her mentor she grapples with her newfound power and overcomes adversity; putting a whole new meaning to " Watch what you say".

Congratulations to our wonderful seniors on their upcoming graduation: Anna Costantini, Jess DelRey-Mejia, John Piero Diana, Kelsey Hannan, Mikayla Herron, Wen Jian, Jess Maturo, Isabel Megale, and Cassie Wang!
We thank you for all your incredible work and enthusiasm and wish you the best in your journeys from here.

✨✨Final spotlight of the semester!✨ ✨Last but certainly not least for the scientist spotlight this Spring is Julia Marshall! Julia is a first-year postdoctoral researcher at Boston College. She received her PhD in psychology from Yale University in 2020, and is currently leading several projects in the Cooperation Lab. In particular, she's interested in how children reason about punishment in different social contexts and how COVID impacts children's judgments of helping behavior. In her free time, she enjoys hanging with her cat (Iggy), riding her Peloton, watching football games, reading books, and cross-stitching!

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Today’s spotlight features one of our graduate students, Minjae Kim! Minjae is a graduate student in both the Cooperation Lab and the Morality Lab at Boston College. Minjae uses behavioral, neuroimaging, and developmental methods to study how we infer other people’s moral character and make decisions based on those inferences. Outside the lab she enjoys making pantry pastas, performing in a gamelan ensemble, and showing people pictures of her dog 🐶

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Today, we’re celebrating one of our thesis students, Kelsey! Kelsey is a senior at Boston College studying psychology. In the lab she is researching the development of virtues in children, particularly looking at how online platforms can be used to study the development of fairness, trustworthiness, honesty, and generosity. After graduation she hopes to do more research before continuing on to graduate school. In her free time she enjoys reading, working out, cooking, and spending time with loved ones.

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Today’s spotlight is on one of our postdoctoral researchers, Justin Martin! Justin’s research focuses on how we respond when others behave badly. In particular, his research focuses on how humans use punishment to change others’ behavior, and how we decide whether to continue or end a relationship. In tackling these questions, Justin employs behavioral studies online and in the lab, as well as developmental and neuroimaging studies. In his spare time, Justin enjoys getting outdoors and spending too much time making cocktails.

🎉NEW SCIENTIST ALERT: PART 2🚨 This week, we’re welcoming another new research assistant to the lab! Maria is a sophomore at Boston College majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Inclusive Education. Welcome to the lab, Maria!

🎉NEW SCIENTIST ALERT🚨 This semester, we’re welcoming three new research assistants to the lab! Welcome to the Cooperation Lab team Isabela, Emily, and Cassie!

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Mikayla is a senior at Boston College studying psychology and is also working to complete the pre-Physician Assistant courses. Her interest in health psychology and background in working with kids who have histories of complex trauma makes her especially passionate about developmental psychology research. Mikayla hopes to use the research skills she developed from her time working in the Cooperation Lab as she enters the healthcare field. In her free time, she enjoys going for walks outside, cooking new recipes, hanging out at the beach, and traveling.

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Jessica is a senior at Boston College studying psychology. She is interested in how children learn to resolve conflicts between competing moral concerns, as well as the underlying mechanisms that influence virtue development and norm acquisition. In her free time, she enjoys reading, running, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Today, we’re celebrating Rick! Rick is a Cooperation Lab post-doc who received his PhD in Psychology from Yale in 2018. He is a developmental psychologist who studies children’s intuitive economic theories and their connections with prosocial behavior. For instance, what factors shape children’s resource valuations? How do children expect people to share resources with others? His all-time-favorite developmental psychology project is his one-year old daughter, Sabrina.

✨SCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT✨ Sarah is a junior at Boston College studying psychology. She is interested in developmental psychology because she likes to study how kids think and act and loves working with kids. In her free time Sarah likes playing the piano, traveling, and spending time with friends.