Project description
Charting the hidden world of childhood emotions
Emotions help us navigate our social and physical worlds, yet we know little about how, when, and why emotions such as awe or envy emerge in children. This gap limits our understanding of what motivates and guides young children’s behaviour. The ERC-funded EMODEV project is designed to fill this void. It will study the emergence of a broad range of distinct emotions, from excitement to envy and resentment in children aged nine months to five years. Using naturalistic observations across cultures and experiments, the project examines emotions as they unfold in daily lives. The goal is to develop an empirically grounded account of the emergence of emotions that advances how we think about emotions and mechanisms shaping children’s behaviors.
Objective
Emotions drive our behaviours and help us navigate our physical and social worlds. While a broad range of distinct emotions have recently received attention in studies among adults, comparable research among young children remains scarce. We thus know next to nothing about
when, how, and why emotions such as awe, excitement, and envy emerge in early development, limiting our understanding of how emotions motivate and guide young children’s everyday behaviour.
This pioneering interdisciplinary research program on the emergence of distinct emotions in early development aims to systematically study 12 distinct emotions—interest, excitement, awe, feeling moved, schadenfreude, elevation, confusion, worry, disappointment, envy, resentment, and indignation—in children from nine months to five years. The central premises are that (1) we need to study different components of emotions: their elicitors, nonverbal expressions, physiological reactions, and effects on subsequent behaviours, as well as prerequisites and individual and social mechanisms of development; and (2) this research should be conducted in naturalistic contexts.
Integrating qualitative approaches with ethological, experimental, longitudinal, and cross-cultural designs, I will empirically investigate when, how, and why distinct emotions emerge in early development. The first objective is to observe different components of emotions as they naturally occur in everyday life across cultures. The second objective is to experimentally examine the causes and consequences of the 12 emotions. The third objective is to map the timing, (socio-)cognitive prerequisites, and the individual and social mechanisms that give rise to these emotions. The overall ambition is to advance the first integrative and empirically grounded account of the emergence of distinct emotions in human development. This will revolutionize our understanding of the nature of emotion and the motivations behind young children’s behaviour.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
1012WX Amsterdam
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.