I am an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago. Here is my faculty page, also my lab website: DIBS Lab. Email is: ashaw1@uchicago.edu
-If you only read one of my papers, Shaw & Olson (2012) is the one I recommend reading.
-For three more recent papers, check out: Good & Shaw (2022), Silver & Shaw (2022), and Mackiel, Zheng, Barakzai, & Shaw (in press).
-For the clearest and most detailed explanation of my view on fairness, I suggest Shaw (2016).
Publications
Landers, M., Mackiel, A., DeScioli, P., & Shaw, A. (in press). Standing on principle: Moral reasons can excuse disloyalty to friends. Evolution and Human Behavior
Morris, B., Yurovsky, D., & Shaw, A. (in press). Um…” Thinking out loud: Children infer the social meaning of speech disfluencies. Child Development.
Mackiel, A., Zheng, Y., Barakzai, A., & Shaw, A. (in press). “You didn’t take my side!”: When children expect others to be more upset at friends. Developmental Psychology
Landers, M., & Shaw, A. (in press) Green-Eyed monster or green-eyed mirage? A new procedure for telling when begrudging others’ success is or is not envy. Emotion
Hok, H., Silva, G., Shaw, A., & Yang, F. (2026). Who should have a voice? Children’s evaluations of universalist versus exclusive voting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 155(1), 94–115.
Morris, B., Shaw, A., & Liberman, Z. (2026). Calibrated deference: Children's evaluations of responses to disagreement across knowledge gaps. Cognition, 265, 106472
Vasquez, K., & Shaw, A. (2026). Good person, but bad friend: Children’s developing evaluations of tattling. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 264, 106439.
Richardson, E., Hok, H., Shaw, A., & Keil, F. (2025). Herding cats: children and adults infer slower collective decisions from teams with more people or factions, but disagree about whether strong consensus speeds up decisions. Cognition, 263, 106211.
Santhanagopalan, R., Hok, H., Shaw, A., & Kinzler, K. D. (2025). The ontogeny of attitudes toward migrants. Developmental Science, 28, e13599.
Hok, H., Gerdin, E., Zhao, X., Shaw, A. (2025). When should the majority rule?: Children’s developing intuitions about majority rules voting. Cognition, 260, e106128.
Berry, Z., Silver, I., & Shaw, A. (2024). Moral paragons, but crummy friends: The case of snitching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 30, 442–464. Pdf
Hok, H., Vasquez, K., Barakzai, A., & Shaw, A. (2024). The nonmeek inherit the earth: Children generalize dominance, but not submissiveness. Developmental Psychology, 60, 1187-1202. Pdf
Ayalon, O., Hok, H., Shaw, A., & Gordon, G. (2023). When it is ok to give the Robot Less: Children’s fairness intuitions towards robots. International Journal of Social Robotics, 15, 1581-1601. Pdf
Silver, I., & Shaw, A. (2022). When and why 'staying out of it' backfires in moral and political disagreements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 151, 2542–2561. Pdf
Good, K., & Shaw, A. (2022). Being versus appearing smart: Children’s developing intuitions about how reputational motives guide behavior. Child Development, 93, 418-436. Pdf
Gordon-Hecker, T., Shaw, A. & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2022). One for me, two for you: Agency increases children’s satisfaction with disadvantageous inequity. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 100, 104286. Pdf
Good, K., & Shaw, A. (2021). Achieving a good impression: Reputation management and performance goals. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science. e1552. Pdf
Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. (2020). Lying to appear honest. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 149, 1719–1735. Pdf
Liberman, Z., & Shaw, A. (2020). Even his friend said he's bad: Children think personal alliances bias gossip. Cognition, 204, e104376. Pdf
Hok, H., Martin, A., Trail, Z., & Shaw, A. (2020). When children treat condemnation as a signal: The costs and benefits of condemnation. Child Development, 91, 1439-1455. Pdf
Hurst, M., Shaw, A., Chernyak, N., & Levine, S. (2020). Giving a larger amount or a larger proportion: Stimulus format impacts children’s social evaluations. Developmental Psychology, 56, 2212-2222.
Shaw, A. & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2020). Who are “we”? Dealing with conflicting moral obligations. Commentary in Behavior and Brain Sciences, 43, 42-43.
Liberman., Z., Gerdin, E., Kinzler, K., & Shaw, A. (2020). (Un)common knowledge: Children use social relationships to determine who knows what. Developmental Science, 23, e12962. Pdf
Echelbarger, M., Good, K., & Shaw, A. (2020). Will she give you two cookies for one chocolate?: Children's intuitions about trade. Judgement and Decision Making, 15, 959-971. Pdf
Bregant, J., Caruso, E., & Shaw, A. (2020). Crime because Punishment? The Inferential Psychology of Morality and Punishment. University of Illinois Law Review, 2020, 1177-1207
Huppert., E. Shaw, A., & Decety, J. (2020). The effect of hunger on children’s sharing behavior and fairness preferences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 190, 104786. Pdf
Choshen-Hillel, S., Lin, Z., & Shaw, A. (2020). Children weigh equity and efficiency in making allocation decisions: Evidence from the US, Israel, and China. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 179 , 704-714. Pdf
Liberman., Z., & Shaw, A. (2019). Children use similarity, propinquity, and loyalty to predict which people are friends. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 184, 1-17. Pdf
Shaw, A., Barakzai, A., & Keysar, B. (2019). When negative reciprocity is more fair than positive reciprocity. Cognitive Science, 43, e12773. Pdf
Bregant, J., Wellbery, I., & Shaw, A. (2019). Crime, but not punishment? Children are more lenient when the “spirit of the law” is unbroken. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 178, 266-282. Pdf
Liberman., Z., & Shaw, A. (2018). Secret to friendship: Children make inferences about friendship based on secret sharing. Developmental Psychology, 54, 2139-2151. Pdf
a
Kardas, M., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. (2018). How to give away your cake and eat it too: Relinquishing control prompts reciprocal generosity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 1054-1074. Pdf
Silver, I. & Shaw, A. (2018). Pint-sized public relations: Developing reputation management. Trends in Cognitive Science, 22, 277-279. Pdf
Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. (2018). Disadvantaged but not dissatisfied: Agency interventions ameliorate negative reactions to unequal pay. Journal of Experiment Psychology: Applied, 24, 578-599. Pdf
Barakzai, A., & Shaw, A. (2018). Friends without benefits: When we react negatively to helpful and generous friends. Evolution and Human Behavior, 5, 529-537. Pdf
Shaw, A., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Caruso, E. (2018). Being biased against friends to appear unbiased. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 78, 104-115. Pdf
DeScioli, P., Shaw, A., & Delton, A. (2018). Share the wealth: Redistribution can increase economic efficiency. Political Behavior, 40, 279-300. Pdf
Silver, I., & Shaw, A. (2018). No harm still foul: Concerns with reputation drive dislike of harmless plagiarizers. Cognitive Science, 42, 213-240. Pdf
Shaw, A., & Choshen-Hillel, S. (2017). It’s not fair: Folk intuitions about disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversion. Judgment and Decision Making, 12, 208-223. Pdf
Shaw, A., DeScioli, P., Barakzai, A., & Kurzban, R. (2017). Whoever is not with me is against me: The costs of neutrality among friends. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 71, 96-104. Pdf
Liberman, Z., & Shaw, A. (2017). Children use partial sharing as a cue to friendship. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 159, 97-109. Pdf
Shaw, A., Choshen-Hillel, S., & Caruso, E. (2016). The development of inequity aversion: Understanding when (and why) people give others the bigger piece of the pie. Psychological Science, 27, 1352-1359. Pdf
Bregant, J., Shaw, A., & Kinzler, K. (2016). Intuitive jurisprudence: Early reasoning about the functions of punishment. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 13, 693-717. Pdf
Tu, Y., Shaw, A., & Fishbach, A. (2016). The friendly taking effect: How interpersonal closeness leads to a seemingly selfish yet jointly maximizing choice. Journal of Consumer Research, 42, 669-687. Pdf
Shaw, A. (2016). Fairness: What it isn’t, what it is, and what it might be for. Evolutionary Perspectives on Child Development and Education (pp. 193-214). Springer International Publishing. Pdf
Phillips, S.J., & Shaw, A. (2015). Manipulating morality: Third-party intentions alter moral judgments by changing causal reasoning. Cognitive Science, 6, 1320-1347. Pdf
Pietraszewski, D., & Shaw, A. (2015). Not by strength alone: Children’s conflict expectations follow the logic of the asymmetric war of attrition. Human Nature, 26, 44-72. Pdf
Choshen-Hillel, S., Shaw, A., & Caruso, E. (2015). Waste management: How reducing partiality can promote efficient resource allocation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109, 210-231. Pdf
Shaw, A., & Olson, K.R. (2015). Whose idea is it anyway: The importance of reputation in acknowledgement. Developmental Science, 18, 502-509. Pdf
Shaw, A., Montinari, N., Piovesan, M., Olson, K.R., Gino, F., & Norton, M.I. (2014). Children develop a veil of fairness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 363-375. Pdf
DeScioli, P., Massenkoff, M., Shaw, A., Petersen, M.B., & Kurzban, R. (2014). Equity or equality? Moral judgments follow the money. Proceedings of the Royal Society - B: Biological Science, 281, 20142112. Pdf
Shaw, A., & Olson, K.R. (2014). Fairness as an aversion to partiality: The development of procedural justice. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 119, 40-53. Pdf
Yang, F., Shaw, A., Garduno, E., & Olson, K.R. (2014). No one likes a copy-cat: A cross cultural investigation of children's response to plagiarism. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 121, 111-119. Pdf
Shaw, A. (2013). Beyond "To share or not to share": The impartiality account of fairness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 413-417. Pdf
Li, V., Shaw, A., & Olson, K.R. (2013). Ideas versus labor: What do children value in artistic creation? Cognition, 127, 38-45. Pdf
Shaw, A., & Knobe, J. (2013). Not all mutualism is fair, and not all fairness is mutualistic. Behavior and Brain Sciences, 36, 100-101.
Shaw, A., Li, V., & Olson, K.R. (2013). Reputation is everything. In M. Banaji & S. Gelman (Eds.), Navigating the social world (pp. 220-224). New York: Oxford.
Shaw, A., & Olson, K.R. (2013). All inequality is not equal: Children correct inequalities using resource value. Frontiers in Emotion Science, 4, 393. Pdf
Leimgruber, K., Shaw, A., Santos, L.R., & Olson, K.R. (2012). Young children are more generous when others are aware of their actions. PLoS-ONE, 7, e48292. Link
Shaw, A., Li, V., & Olson, K.R. (2012). Children apply principles of physical ownership to ideas. Cognitive Science, 36, 1383-1403. Pdf
Shaw, A., DeScioli, P., & Olson, K.R. (2012). Fairness versus favoritism in children. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33, 736-745. Pdf
Shaw, A., & Olson, K.R. (2012). Children discard a resource to avoid inequity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141, 382-395. Pdf
Shaw, A., & Santos, L.R. (2012). Lab support for strong reciprocity is weak: Punishing for reputation rather than cooperation. Behavior and Brain Sciences, 35, 39.
Olson, K.R., & Shaw, A. (2011). “No fair, copycat!”: What children’s response to plagiarism tells us about their understanding of ideas. Developmental Science, 14, 431-439. Pdf