Katie Vasquez

Thank you for participating! Such a fun group thinking about this broad topic in really interesting ways!

A flyer advertising a symposium at SPSP. Speakers include Katie Vasquez, Merrick Osborne, Nina Rodriguez, and Jacinth Tan. Find more information on Whova: https://whova.com/portal/webapp/WMg9c84cPufsiZYYC3hP/Agenda/5067471

I will be chairing a symposium looking at how social hierarchy impacts people across a variety of social environments. There, you can see me talk about popularity as a form of social status and how this may impact children's peer groups.
@merrickosborne.bsky.social

A flyer advertising presentations from members of the UChicago DIBS Lab at SPSP. Speakers include Alex Mackiel, Katie Vasquez, Alex Shaw, Erin Kim, Isabella Ramkissoon, and Yutong (Iris) Chen. Find more information on Whova: https://whova.com/portal/webapp/WMg9c84cPufsiZYYC3hP/Agenda

Excited for #SPSP2026 in my home city! The UChicago DIBS Lab (PI: Alex Shaw) has lots of presentations and we would love to see you there! Come learn more about friendship, morality, leadership, intellectual property, and "coolness".
@spspnews.bsky.social @amackiel.bsky.social

I always love talking about popularity with other researchers, so if you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to reach out!

Our General Discussion argues that popularity is meaningfully distinct from other status categories (e.g., dominance). The upshot: Why we copy popular people seems different than why we conform to intimidating people (more data on that coming soon).

4. Relatedly, the copying of popular kids is specific to endeavors like "style" but not their homework (S4).
5. Popularity and wealth are both desirable. When asked which they would rather be, children across all ages tested were split (S2).

Bar graph showing the proportion of children who select the popular character across three age groups (5-6, 7-8, 9-10 years) for four questions: Who is copied, who is smart,who is nice, and who has an easy life. As age increases, more children select the popular character as the one who is copied, and fewer children select the popular character as having an easy life (i.e., more selected the rich kid).

In 4 preregistered studies, children said:
1. Popular kids are rich (S1).
2. But popularity and wealth are distinct. Popular kids are more copied by their peers, while rich kids have easier lives (S2-4, see figure).
3. Popular kids are not better at everything (e.g., they aren't super smart; S1-4).

🧵 New preprint with my advisor, Alex Shaw!
We asked: What does “popularity” actually mean? Is it a distinct status category with specific features? We turned to elementary-schoolers, who have just begun to experience their own "popularity hierarchies," for some answers.

osf.io/preprints/ps...

4. Relatedly, the copying of popular kids is specific to endeavors like "style" but not their homework (S4).
5. Popularity and wealth are both desirable. When asked which they would rather be, children across all ages tested were split (S2).

Bar graph showing the proportion of children who select the popular character across three age groups (5-6, 7-8, 9-10 years) for four questions: Who is copied, who is smart,who is nice, and who has an easy life. As age increases, more children select the popular character as the one who is copied, and fewer children select the popular character as having an easy life (i.e., more selected the rich kid).

In 4 preregistered studies, children said:
1. Popular kids are rich (S1).
2. But popularity and wealth are distinct. Popular kids are more copied by their peers, while rich kids have easier lives (S2-4, see figure).
3. Popular kids are not better at everything (e.g., they aren't super smart; S1-4).

My symposium will explore children's understanding of social hierarchy. How do children think status is earned? What does it mean to be high status? When should power be transferred? Speakers include @aashnap.bsky.social, @katiemcauliffe.bsky.social, and Mack Briscoe! Come Saturday afternoon!

Come check out the UChicago Social Kids Lab (PIs Katherine Kinzler and Alex Shaw) at #SRCD2025. My labmates have lots of exciting projects I can't wait to watch them present.

Funny, I was looking for something just like this to cite today!

Our full time lab coordinator job search is newly reopened! : 1-yr joint collaborative position, basic psych science research. Child/adult cognition & development (my research group) + adult reasoning & decision making (Dr. Andrea Patalano's group). Please share! careers.wesleyan.edu/postings/10300

A blurb with the author, title, and session number for each of our posters. Rachel Ann King will present her poster in Session 1; Katie Vasquez, Alex Mackiel, and Tania Dhaliwal will present in Session 2; Isabella Ramkissoon, Jessica Waltmon, and Ben Morris will present in Session 4. Principal investigators: Alex Shaw and Katherine D. Kinzler.

The UChicago Social Kids Lab will be at CDS! Come stop by our posters and see what we've been thinking about lately!

So, please vote for me, CDS people! I have concrete ideas for this position and I can only hope that seeing someone like me doing what she loves can only encourage more diversity in all fields of developmental science. Look out for that email from Survey Monkey!

I think about my basic research while walking my dog, at the gym, and even write down ideas in my Notes before bed. I want to encourage ECRs to follow their passions and show them they belong in any field, and increased diversity in those fields will improve the quality of all developmental science.

I am running for this position because people like me (queer, Latina, women). often gravitate toward applied research, sometimes out of feeling like they only belong in those environments. I want to take this barrier down.

I also hope to work with my co-student board member to design a workshop for the meeting.There are many topics we could choose from, like navigating the Hidden Curriculum, CVs, or organizing a symposium. We will recruit faculty from many areas to provide their expertise for this event.

I have lots of actionable goals for my time in this position. One idea I am really excited about is to host a poster webinar. What software is available? What do I include? How much text? We would also prepare for the session itself by going over elevator pitches and common, but tough, questions.

The title was all Alex!!!

This is my first paper with my graduate advisor, Alex Shaw! I would like to thank my co-authors, lab alumni, Hannah Hok and Anam Barakzai for including me on this paper.

In our paper, we explore both social and physical conflicts. In (very) short, we find that older children specifically and reliably generalized dominance, not submissiveness. We discuss many reasons why this might be the case in the paper!

Children use many cues to determine who is dominant. But from these studies, which mostly rely on one dyad or two groups, it is hard to say if children think that dominants are dominant, subordinates are subordinate, or if they only have their rank in relation to each other.

Now in press at Developmental Psychology, we probe the depth of children’s inferences about dominance and submissiveness. Children were asked to rank a previously dominant and subordinate agent compared to a previously uninvolved agent.

From the movie Mean Girls, Gretchen telling Regina, "You can't sit with us!"

Reposting information about our postprint here: If Gretchen Wieners tells Regina George, “You can’t sit with us,” children know Gretchen is now dominant and Regina is now subordinate. But how do Gretchen and Regina rank relative to Cady Heron, who was uninvolved in this conflict?

@asmithflores.bsky.social's paper on children's reasoning about social relationships & empathy is now published in Open Mind! direct.mit.edu/opmi/article...

For folks who missed the preprint on Twitter, here's a quick summary (1/4)