Peter Blake
Assistant Professor
Psychology & Brain Science
Boston University
United States of America
Biography
Dr. Blake general interest is in social cognitive development, but Dr. Blake research focuses on three important foundations of human life: cooperation, fairness and ownership. Dr. Blake is interested in the cognitive and social processes that underlie children’s social interactions around material goods. More concretely, Dr. Blake ask questions such as: when should you share and when should you compete for resources? is equal always fair or can you sometimes keep more for yourself? how do you know when a toy is owned and what does that mean? Dr. Blake experiments are based on game theory, which means that children can gain or lose resources like candy or stickers depending on their decisions. Dr. Blake am currently extending projects to different cultures in order to look for common developmental patterns and assess cultural variables that influence cooperation.
Research Interest
Social cognitive development
Publications
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Smith CE, Blake PR, Harris PL. I should but I won’t: Why young children endorse norms of fair sharing but do not follow them. PloS one. 2013 Mar 20;8(3):e59510.
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Blake PR, Rand DG. Currency value moderates equity preference among young children. Evolution and human behavior. 2010 May 31;31(3):210-8.
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Blake PR, McAuliffe K. “I had so much it didn’t seem fairâ€: Eight-year-olds reject two forms of inequity. Cognition. 2011 Aug 31;120(2):215-24.
