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Dr. Marie Schäfer

Postdoctoral Researcher

Education

  • 2014: PhD in Psychology (Dr. rer. nat.), Leipzig University
    Dissertation: Cultural variation in children’s development of resource sharing and fairness.
  • 2009: Master in Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology (M. Sc.), University of Oxford (UK)
    Master thesis: Why social context matters for the prosocial effects of human behavioural mimicry.
  • 2008: Bachelor in Cognitive Science (B. Sc.), University of Osnabrück
    Bachelor thesis: Chimpanzees’ deictic communication with regard to displaced referents.

Academic Posititions

  • since 03/2022: Researcher, Leipzig University, Institute for Psychology, Lifespan Developmental Psychology Lab (Prof. Ute Kunzmann)
  • since 01/2021: Research Affiliate, Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Research Group of Cognitive Anthropology (Prof. Kristina Musholt)
  • 2014 - 2019: Postdoctoral student and Research Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology (Prof. Michael Tomasello)
  • 2009 - 2014: PhD Student, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology (Prof. Michael Tomasello), Research Group of Comparative Cognitive Anthropology (Prof. Daniel Haun)
  • 2005 - 2008: Research Assistant, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology (Prof. Michael Tomasello)

Research Interests

  • Childhood and child development from a cross-cultural perspective
  • Social-cognitive development in childhood, in particular prosociality, cooperation, norm and fairness understanding, perspective taking, epistemic understanding

Publications

  • Schäfer, M., Haun, D.B.M. & Tomasello, M. (2023). Childrens's consideration of collaboration and merit when making decisions in private. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 228, 105609.
  • Kanngiesser, P., Schäfer, M., Herrmann, E., Zeidler, H., Haun, D., & Tomasello, M. (2022). Children across societies enforce conventional norms but in culturally variable ways. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(1).
  • Hanisch, S., Eirdosh, D., Schäfer, M., & Haun, D. B. M. (2021). What is “fair” is not the same everywhere. Frontiers for Young Minds, 9.
  • van Leeuwen, E.J.C., Cohen, E., Collier-Baker, E., Rapold, C.J., Schäfer, M., Schütte, S. Haun, D.B.M. (2018) The development of human social learning across seven societies. Nature Communications 9 (1), 2076.
  • Schäfer, M., Haun, D. B. M., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Fair is not fair everywhere. Psychological Science, 26, 1252– 1260.
  • Schäfer, M. (2014). Cultural variation in children’s development of resource sharing and fairness. PhD Dissertation, Universität Leipzig.
  • Schäfer, M., & Haun, D. B. M. (2010). Sharing among children across cultures. In E. Norcliffe, & N. J. Enfield (Eds.), Field manual volume 13 (pp. 45-49). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
  • Liszkowski, U., Schäfer, M., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2009). Prelinguistic infants, but not chimpanzees, communicate about absent entities. Psychological Science, 20, 654-660.