MABEL will support experimental and field research on several core themes.
1. Development of Decision-Making
We study how children and adolescents develop the ability to make choices, reason strategically, learn from others, cooperate, compete, and understand uncertainty. This includes research on preferences, social behavior, theory of mind, cognitive control, risk-taking, patience, and strategic reasoning.
2. Learning, Education, and Human Capital
MABEL investigates how children learn and how educational environments shape cognitive and socio-emotional development. Research may examine attention, memory, problem-solving, school participation, motivation, resilience, and the role of family and community environments.
3. Social Interaction and Cooperation
Many decisions are social. MABEL studies how individuals cooperate, coordinate, communicate, share information, trust others, and respond to social norms. This includes experiments on networks, collective learning, consensus formation, and group decision-making.
4. Poverty, Institutions, and Opportunity
The laboratory examines how economic hardship, institutional constraints, and unequal access to opportunity shape behavior and development. A key objective is to understand how structural barriers influence aspirations, learning, cooperation, and long-term decision-making.
5. Biology, Environment, and Behavior
MABEL promotes research that links behavioral data with biological and environmental factors, including nutrition, sleep, stress, health, puberty, and developmental conditions. The goal is to better understand how biological constraints and environmental conditions jointly shape cognition and behavior.