Peter Blake | Profiles RNS

Peter Blake, EdD

Associate Professor

Boston University College of Arts and Sciences

Psychological and Brain Sciences

PhD, Harvard University
EdD, Harvard University
MEd, Harvard University
MBA, Boston University
BA, University of Rochester

Websites

	Psychological & Brain Sciences
	CDL
	Google Scholar
	Research Gate

Peter Blake is an assistant professor of psychology at Boston University and the director of the Social Development and Learning Lab. He received his doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to his appointment at Boston University he held a position as a postdoctoral researcher at the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University. He currently collaborates with game theorists, anthropologists, and other developmental psychologists to create new approaches to studying cooperation in children.

Research Interests:
Peter's general interest is in social cognitive development, but his research focuses on three important foundations of human life: cooperation, fairness and ownership. He is interested in the cognitive and social processes that underlie children’s social interactions around material goods. More concretely, he asks 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? His experiments are based on game theory, which means that children can gain or lose resources like candy or stickers depending on their decisions. He is currently extending projects to different cultures in order to look for common developmental patterns and assess cultural variables that influence cooperation.

Director
Boston University College of Arts and Sciences
Psychological and Brain Sciences
Child Development Labs

BU Research

Why Giving Half is Easy, But Giving More than Half is Hard: A Developmental Theory of Generosity
09/01/2022 - 08/31/2024 (PI)
John Templeton Foundation

Individual Differences and Children's Motivations for Forgiveness
07/01/2019 - 06/30/2022 (PI)
John Templeton Foundation

Developing A Program Model for High School Science Research, Communication and Education Experiences in Living Laboratory
12/01/2018 - 11/30/2021 (Subcontract PI)
Museum of Science National Science Fdn
DRL-1811276

The Role of Gratitude in Early Presocial Behavior
09/01/2015 - 08/31/2017 (Subcontract PI)
The Regents of the University of California (University of California, Berkeley) John Templeton Fdn

Cognitive Underpinning and Consequences of Generosity
09/01/2015 - 08/31/2017 (Subcontract PI)
Trustees of Boston College John Templeton Fdn

Gratitude in Development: Cognitive, Affective and Normative Dimensions
09/01/2013 - 07/31/2014 (Subcontract PI)
Yale University John Templeton Fdn

Gratitude in Development: Cognitive, Affective and Normative Dimensions
09/01/2012 - 07/31/2013 (Subcontract PI)
The Trustees of Princeton University John Templeton Fdn

Title

Yr	Title	Project-Sub Proj	Pubs

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

iCite Analysis Copy PMIDs To Clipboard

Foti F, Costanzo F, Fabrizio C, Termine A, Menghini D, Iaquinta T, Vicari S, Petrosini L, Blake PR. The role of social motivation in sharing and fairness: insights from Williams syndrome. J Neurodev Disord. 2024 Aug 31; 16(1):50. PMID: 39217324; DOI: 10.1186/s11689-024-09568-3;

Blake PR. A developmental perspective on the minimalist model: The case of respect for ownership. Behav Brain Sci. 2023 Oct 10; 46:e328. PMID: 37813406

Amir D, Melnikoff D, Warneken F, Blake PR, Corbit J, Callaghan TC, Barry O, Bowie A, Kleutsch L, Kramer KL, Ross E, Vongsachang H, Wrangham R, McAuliffe K. Computational signatures of inequity aversion in children across seven societies. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2023 Oct; 152(10):2882-2896. PMID: 37155284

Harvey T, Blake PR. Developmental risk sensitivity theory: the effects of socio-economic status on children's risky gain and loss decisions. Proc Biol Sci. 2022 Sep 28; 289(1983):20220712. PMID: 36168761; DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.0712;

Gerdemann SC, McAuliffe K, Blake PR, Haun DBM, Hepach R. The ontogeny of children's social emotions in response to (un)fairness. R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Aug; 9(8):191456. PMID: 36061521; DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191456;

Stowe LM, Peretz-Lange R, Blake PR. Children Consider Procedures, Outcomes, and Emotions When Judging the Fairness of Inequality. Front Psychol. 2022; 13:815901. PMID: 35310214; DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.815901;

Peretz-Lange R, Harvey T, Blake PR. From "haves" to "have nots": Developmental declines in subjective social status reflect children's growing consideration of what they do not have. Cognition. 2022 06; 223:105027. PMID: 35124455

Peretz-Lange R, Harvey T, Blake PR. Socioeconomic status predicts children's moral judgments of novel resource distributions. Dev Sci. 2022 07; 25(4):e13230. PMID: 35023241

Smith-Flores AS, Applin JB, Blake PR, Kibbe MM. Children's understanding of economic demand: A dissociation between inference and choice. Cognition. 2021 09; 214:104747.View Related Profiles.

Kibbe, Melissa
Blake, Peter

PMID: 33971529

Rottman J, Zizik V, Minard K, Young L, Blake PR, Kelemen D. The moral, or the story? Changing children's distributive justice preferences through social communication. Cognition. 2020 12; 205:104441. PMID: 33045639

Showing 10 of 41 results. Show More

Gonzalez G, Blake PR, Dunham Y, McAuliffe K. Ingroup bias does not influence inequity aversion in children. Dev Psychol. 2020 Jun; 56(6):1080-1091. PMID: 32297762

McAuliffe K, Blake PR, Warneken F. Costly fairness in children is influenced by who is watching. Dev Psychol. 2020 Apr; 56(4):773-782. PMID: 31999186

McLoughlin N, Leech KA, Chernyak N, Blake PR, Corriveau KH. Conflicting perspectives mediate the relation between parents' and preschoolers' self-referent mental state talk during collaboration. Br J Dev Psychol. 2020 06; 38(2):255-267. PMID: 31825541

Chernyak N, Leimgruber KL, Dunham YC, Hu J, Blake PR. Paying Back People Who Harmed Us but Not People Who Helped Us: Direct Negative Reciprocity Precedes Direct Positive Reciprocity in Early Development. Psychol Sci. 2019 09; 30(9):1273-1286. PMID: 31381490

McAuliffe K, Warneken F, Blake P. Children's Sense of Fairness: Respect Isn't Everything. Trends Cogn Sci. 2019 09; 23(9):715-716. PMID: 31285105

Davoodi T, Soley G, Harris PL, Blake PR. Essentialization of Social Categories Across Development in Two Cultures. Child Dev. 2020 01; 91(1):289-306. PMID: 30644543

Chernyak N, Harvey T, Tarullo AR, Rockers PC, Blake PR. Varieties of Young Children's Prosocial Behavior in Zambia: The Role of Cognitive Ability, Wealth, and Inequality Beliefs. Front Psychol. 2018; 9:2209.View Related Profiles.

Blake, Peter
Rockers, Peter

PMID: 30505288; DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02209;

Davoodi T, Nelson LJ, Blake PR. Children's Conceptions of Ownership for Self and Other: Categorical Ownership Versus Strength of Claim. Child Dev. 2020 01; 91(1):163-178. PMID: 30320431

Kajanus A, McAuliffe K, Warneken F, Blake PR. Children's fairness in two Chinese schools: A combined ethnographic and experimental study. J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 01; 177:282-296. PMID: 30274706

Ronfard S, Nelson L, Dunham Y, Blake PR. How children use accuracy information to infer informant intentions and to make reward decisions. J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 01; 177:100-118. PMID: 30172198

Corbit J, McAuliffe K, Callaghan TC, Blake PR, Warneken F. Children's collaboration induces fairness rather than generosity. Cognition. 2017 11; 168:344-356. PMID: 28797935

Blake PR. Giving what one should: explanations for the knowledge-behavior gap for altruistic giving. Curr Opin Psychol. 2018 04; 20:1-5. PMID: 28822896

Harvey T, Davoodi T, Blake PR. Young children will lie to prevent a moral transgression. J Exp Child Psychol. 2018 Jan; 165:51-65. PMID: 28735681

Blake PR, Corbit J, Callaghan TC, Warneken F. Give as I give: Adult influence on children's giving in two cultures. J Exp Child Psychol. 2016 Dec; 152:149-160. PMID: 27552298; DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.07.010;

Schroeder KB, Asherson P, Blake PR, Fenstermacher SK, Saudino KJ. Variant at serotonin transporter gene predicts increased imitation in toddlers: relevance to the human capacity for cumulative culture. Biol Lett. 2016 Apr; 12(4). PMID: 27072408; PMCID: PMC4881356; DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2016.0106;

Blake PR, McAuliffe K, Corbit J, Callaghan TC, Barry O, Bowie A, Kleutsch L, Kramer KL, Ross E, Vongsachang H, Wrangham R, Warneken F. The ontogeny of fairness in seven societies. Nature. 2015 Dec 10; 528(7581):258-61. PMID: 26580018; DOI: 10.1038/nature15703;

Blake PR, Rand DG, Tingley D, Warneken F. The shadow of the future promotes cooperation in a repeated prisoner's dilemma for children. Sci Rep. 2015; 5:14559. PMID: 26417661; PMCID: PMC4586758; DOI: 10.1038/srep14559;

McAuliffe K, Chang L, Leimgruber K, Spaulding R, Blake PR, Santos L. Capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) show no evidence for inequity aversion in a costly choice task. Animal Behaviour. 2015; 103:65-74. View Publication

McAuliffe K, Blake PR, Warneken F. Children reject inequity out of spite. Biol Lett. 2014 Dec; 10(12):20140743. PMID: 25540156; PMCID: PMC4298187; DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0743;

Blake PR, Piovesan M, Montinari N, Warneken F, Gino F. Prosocial norms in the classroom: The role of self-regulation in following norms of giving. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 2014; 115:18-29. View Publication

Blake PR, McAuliffe K, Warneken F. The developmental origins of fairness: the knowledge-behavior gap. Trends Cogn Sci. 2014 Nov; 18(11):559-61. PMID: 25175834; DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.08.003;

McAuliffe K, Blake PR, Kim G, Wrangham RW, Warneken F. Social influences on inequity aversion in children. PLoS One. 2013; 8(12):e80966. PMID: 24312509; PMCID: PMC3846671; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0080966;

Smith CE, Blake PR, Harris PL. Correction: I Should but I Won't: Why Young Children Endorse Norms of Fair Sharing but Do Not Follow Them. PLoS One. 2013; 8(8). PMID: 29220847; DOI: 10.1371/annotation/4b9340db-455b-4e0d-86e5-b6783747111f;

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; 8(3):e59510. PMID: 23527210; PMCID: PMC3603928; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059510;

Blake PR, Ganea PA, Harris PL. Possession is not always the law: with age, preschoolers increasingly use verbal information to identify who owns what. J Exp Child Psychol. 2012 Oct; 113(2):259-72. PMID: 22832198; DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2012.06.008;

Blake PR, McAuliffe K. "I had so much it didn't seem fair": Eight-year-olds reject two forms of inequity. Cognition. 2011 Aug; 120(2):215-24. PMID: 21616483; DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2011.04.006;

Blake PR, Harris PL. Early representations of ownership. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev. 2011; 2011(132):39-51. PMID: 21671340; DOI: 10.1002/cd.295;

Blake PR, Rand DG. Evolution and Human Behavior. Currency value moderates equity preference among young children. 2010; 31(3):210-218. View Publication

Hauser M, McAuliffe K, Blake PR. Evolving the ingredients for reciprocity and spite. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2009 Nov 12; 364(1533):3255-66. PMID: 19805432; PMCID: PMC2781875; DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0116;

Blake PR, Harris PL. Children’s understanding of ownership transfers. Cognitive Development. 2009; 24:133-145.
Blake PR, Gardner H. A first course in Mind, Brain and Education. Mind, Brain and Education. 2007; 2(1):61-65. View Publication

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 41 publications over 17 distinct years, with a maximum of 5 publications in 2022