Lab Members
Alex Shaw, Ph.D.
DIBS Lab Principal Investigator, Professor of Psychology
Broadly, Alex is interested in how human beings navigate the complex social world by tracking each others’ reputations and by signaling to others. More specifically, he studies the development of fairness in children. His fairness research is focused on differentiating fairness from other forms of niceness, exploring the reputational motives that may underlie fairness, and how fairness may relate to our alliance psychology. He also researches intellectual property in children and is investigating whether part of our concern with people stealing ideas is based in not liking others garnering a false reputational advantage. He is also interested in the computations people perform to decide how and when to fight over resources, track others’ reputations, and learn to properly discount others’ self-promotional strategies.
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Email: ashaw1@uchicago.edu
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Isabella Ramkissoon
Lab Manager
Isabella oversees the lab’s research projects and facilitates the work of our graduate and undergraduate researchers. She received her B.A. in Psychology with honors from the University of Chicago in 2024. Within the CECR, she unites the Development of Social Cognition (DSC) Lab and the Developmental Investigations of Behavior and Strategy (DIBS) Lab led by Professor Alex Shaw. She is interested in studying children's early sociopolitical thinking.
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Email: iramkissoon@uchicago.edu
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Molly C. Gibian, M.A.
Senior Research Associate
Molly advises for the lab’s research agenda, integrates systemic project management, writes regulatory documents and provides organizational guidance. She has over 10 years of research experience in developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and education from her roles at M.I.T., Harvard Medical School, Cornell University, the University of Chicago and Stanford University. Her interests focus on societal/cultural influences on learning cognition, education environments, leadership and social language.
Email: mgibian@uchicago.edu
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Declan Gunn
Assistant Lab Manager
Declan oversees the CECR's Infant Database and coordinates participant recruitment and data infrastructure for the lab's developmental studies. Within the CECR, he also serves as lab manager for the Human Nature and Potentials Lab led by Dr. Fan Yang. Declan graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Cognitive Science and an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Chicago in 2025. His research interests center on the social-cognitive development of morality and self-realization, and in his free time he enjoys road trips, Dungeons and Dragons, and writing about himself in third person.​
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Email: declangunn@uchicago.edu
Graduate Students and Post-Docs
Radhika Santhanagopalan
Post-Doctoral Researcher
Radhika’s primary research area is developmental judgment and decision-making (DJDM), focusing on children’s capacity to engage in strategic decision-making, and when these strategies go awry. This work includes children’s avoidance of information (i.e., the “ostrich effect”), negotiations, and decision errors. Her secondary area of research is on social group cognition, where she focuses on how children use social markers (e.g., race, gender) to make social judgments.
Email: radhikas@uchicago.edu
Website: https://www.radhikasanthanagopalan.com/
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Katie Vasquez
Ph.D. Student
Katie is a PhD student working with Alex Shaw. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2020 with a high honors in Psychology. After graduating, Katie worked as Yarrow Dunham’s and Paul Bloom’s laboratory manager at the Yale University Social Cognitive Development and Mind and Development Labs. Katie broadly researches children's social and moral development, including children's moral intuitions and how children behave in socio-moral dilemmas. In the DIBS Lab, Katie plans to focus on how children think about and engage in social strategies, such as reputation management.
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Email: kvasquez@uchicago.edu
Website: https://katievasq.github.io
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Alex Mackiel
Ph.D. Student
Alex is a PhD student with Alex Shaw and Amanda Woodward. In general, Alex studies social and moral cognition from infancy to adulthood. He is especially interested in how people in varying stages of development perceive, understand, and reason about different types of social relationships and the norms, expectations, and obligations that they entail.
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Email: amackiel@uchicago.edu
Erin Kim
Ph.D. Student
Erin is a PhD student working with Alex Shaw. She completed her undergraduate education at Vanderbilt University, where she also worked as a part-time undergraduate research coordinator for the Early Development Lab with Georgene Troseth. Erin then went on to work for Wesleyan University as a lab coordinator for Hilary Barth's Cognitive Development Lab. As a graduate student, she is excited to explore how children draw inferences and form concepts about the social world through implicit cues in their environment. She is particularly interested in how children think about secret-sharing interactions.
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Email: erindkim@uchicago.edu
Research Assistants
Jaden Sher
Research Assistant with Erin Kim
Jaden is currently a second year in The College, planning to major in psychology and business economics. He is interested in studying social dynamics, particularly how they relate to reputation and leadership. He will be working with graduate student Erin Kim and assisting her research in these areas.
Anderson Lynch
Research Assistant with Katie Vasquez
Anderson is a third year psychology major interested in developmental psychology and social cognition. He is especially interested in the development of concepts including equality, justice, and fairness in children and how they present in social settings. Anderson will mainly be assisting PhD student Katie Vasquez in her ongoing and upcoming studies.​
Winni Zhao
Research Assistant with Katie Vasquez
Winni is a second year student in the College, majoring in Cognitive Science. She is particularly interested in developmental psychology and how children incorporate environmental influences into their own identities, especially in the areas of moral judgment and fairness. Winni will mainly be assisting PhD student Katie Vasquez with her projects.
Alexis Johnson
Research Assistant with Alex Mackiel
Alexis is currently a second year in the College with plans to double-major in Chemistry and Psychology. She is particularly interested in how children learn to navigate their environment and construct a social hierarchy in their mind based on perceived reputations and status, which influence their future actions and development. Alexis will be working with graduate student Alex Mackiel.
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Elizabeth Tian
Research Assistant with Erin Kim
Elizabeth is a third year pre-med student majoring in Comparative Human Development. She is interested in learning how social interaction and relationships in early life influence people's biases and attitudes. She is currently assisting graduate student Erin Kim with her projects.
Chloe Guo
Research Assistant with Alex Mackiel
Chloe is a second year student in the College double majoring in Business Economics and Psychology. She is particularly interested in social and developmental psychology and in how environmental influences shape the development of identity, morality, justice, and behaviors around different people based on social status and beliefs. She is currently assisting graduate student Alex Mackiel with his research.
Ian Lam
Research Assistant with Radhika Santhanagopalan
Ian is a first-year student in the college, planning to major in cognitive science and philosophy. He is interested in social cognition and how children understand and internalize concepts like morality and reputation. Ian will be assisting our post-doc Radhika Santhanagopalan with her projects.
Lab Alumni
Ben Morris
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2024)
Post DIBS Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher at Yale
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Mitchell Landers
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2024)
Post DIBS Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher at UCSD
Hannah Hok (Kim)
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2023)
Post DIBS Lab: Postdoctoral Researcher at MIT
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Anam Barakzai, Ph.D.
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2019)
Post DIBS Lab: Working at Google in UX
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Jessica Bregant, J.D., Ph.D.
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2018)
Post DIBS Lab: Assistant Professor Houston Law Center
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Zoe Liberman, Ph.D.
In DIBS Lab: Graduate Student (Ph.D., 2016)
Post DIBS Lab: Associate Professor, UCSB
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Ike Silver. Ph. D
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Assistant Professor, USC Marketing
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Emily Gerdin
In DIBS Lab: Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student, Yale University, Psychology
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Kayla Good
In DIBS Lab: Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student at Stanford University
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Zachariah Berry, M.A.
In DIBS Lab: Was a MAPSS Student
Post DIBS Lab: Assistant Professor, USC Management
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Sean Zheng, M.A
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant and MAPSS student
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student, Northwestern University, Psychology
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Sophie Arnold
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Ph. D. Student, New York University.
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Abbie Klein
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student, UW Madison
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James Dunlea
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant
Post DIBS Lab: Ph.D. Student at Columbia University, Psychology
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Emory Kim
In DIBS Lab: Research Assistant/Junior Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Lab Manager for Franklin Huang Lab, UCSF
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Gemma Smith
In DIBS Lab: Lab Manager
Post DIBS Lab: Fulbright Scholar; English Teaching Assistantship in Argentina
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