#648 Niamh McLoughlin: Child Social Development, Religion, Mental State Talk, and Group Affiliation

RECORDED ON APRIL 12th 2022.
Dr. Niamh McLoughlin is a Lecturer in Developmental Psychology at University of Kent. She studies how social information impacts young children’s cognition, evaluations and behavior.

In this episode, we talk about children’s social cognition. We first discuss how early children start processing social information, and then go through topics like religiosity and religious beliefs; believing in the content of stories; inferring causal relations; mental state talk, and theory of mind; the development of group affiliations; dehumanization; and interventions to promote prosocial behavior toward out-group members.

Time Links:
00:00 Intro
00:27 How early do children start processing social information?
09:13 The development of religiosity and religious beliefs
19:14 Parents’ beliefs about their own influence on child development
22:39 Do children really believe in what happens in stories?
26:31 At what age do children start inferring causal relations?
32:25 Mental state talk, and theory of mind
36:50 The development of in-group affiliation and out-group derogation
41:51 Dehumanization
48:01 Interventions to promote prosocial behavior toward out-group members
52:49 Follow Dr. McLoughlin’s work!

Follow Dr. McLoughlin’s work:
University page: https://bit.ly/3iilSFB
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/3mO5f7n
Twitter handle: @NiamhMcLoughl14