Susan Kruglinski

I am a mid-career student with experience in science journalism and mental healthcare studying the influence of social media on child development, with a focus on social contagion, magical thinking, unusual niche cultures, and young people’s susceptibility to maladaptive conformity. I am interested in how these issues are novel in the digital age, as well as how they relate to what is already known about the psychological development of children, adolescents, and young adults.

Taryn Crone

I am a second-year graduate student and my research has focused on the different domains of creativity, how they develop in young children, and what benefits they have. My research interests also include determining how children differentiate between fantasy and reality, specifically through their beliefs in luck and superstitions, and how those beliefs can affect their day-to-day lives.

Risha Patel

I am a Psychology major and Honors student at the University of Texas at Austin, also pursuing a minor in Statistics and Data Science. My research interests broadly center around children’s cognitive and social development, particularly how children form beliefs and understand the world around them. I am especially interested in how parent-child relationships and social experiences shape children’s reasoning, judgments, and conceptual development.