% pubman genre = article
@article{item_2608916,
title = {{Communicative eye contact signals a commitment to cooperate for young children}},
author = {Siposova, Barbora and Tomasello, Michael and Carpenter, Malinda},
language = {eng},
issn = {0010-0277},
doi = {10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.010},
publisher = {Elsevier},
address = {Amsterdam},
year = {2018},
date = {2018-10},
abstract = {{Making commitments to cooperate facilitates cooperation. There is a long-standing theoretical debate about how promissory obligations come into existence, and whether linguistic acts (such as saying {\textquotedblleft}I promise{\textquotedblright}) are a necessary part of the process. To inform this debate we experimentally investigated whether even minimal, nonverbal behavior can be taken as a commitment to cooperate, as long as it is communicative. Five- to 7-year-old children played a Stag Hunt coordination game in which they needed to decide whether to cooperate or play individually. During the decision-making phase, children{\textquoteright}s partner made either ostensive, communicative eye contact or looked non-communicatively at them. In Study 1 we found that communicative looks produced an expectation of collaboration in children. In Study 2 we found that children in the communicative look condition normatively protested when their partner did not cooperate, thus showing an understanding of the communicative looks as a commitment to cooperate. This is the first experimental evidence, in adults or children, that in the right context, communicative, but not non-communicative, looks can signal a commitment.}},
journal = {{Cognition}},
volume = {179},
pages = {192--201},
}