Date: 21 November 2025, Friday
Time: 12:30
Venue: A-130 FEASS Seminar Room
Title: Children’s Developing Interpretation of Costly Actions: A Gateway to Cultural Learning
Speaker: Nazlı Altınok, Koç University
Abstract:
In several different contexts, from religious practices and formal dinner etiquette to altruistic behaviors, individuals often engage in actions that incur costs. What do such costly actions signal? Observing someone walking three kilometers to a specific store while there is just another store nearby could indicate the agent’s preference for that particular store. However, the costs agents purposefully expand through their actions do not only signal individual preferences. The costs of certain actions can also reflect the benefits derived from adhering to group norms and cultural practices. In this talk, I will argue that observing the costly actions of others helps us to represent and learn conventional and culturally relevant ways of acting around the world from a young age. Through presenting several lines of research, I will talk about how infants and children make sense of the costly behaviors of others and how they use social categories from an early age to interpret those seemingly irrational behaviors.