How to help toddlers learn about feelings

Plus: links in couples' physiology and how teens are using ChatGPT

It’s that time, techno sapiens! We are BACK for a brand new Research Roundup, and I, for one, could not be more excited. These new studies have everything [Stefon voice]: teaching toddlers about emotions, teens’ use of ChatGPT for schoolwork, shared physiological patterns in couples…and all in four minutes or less!

Let’s get to it!

1. Are you and your partner *in sync*?

Okay, let’s start with the basics here. When we sweat, it changes the electrical properties of our skin. Researchers can capture these changes (called “Electrodermal activity” or EDA) using biosensors on people’s wrists. EDA is a measure of “physiological arousal,” or the way our body’s nervous system responds to positive and negative emotions.

In this extremely cool study, researchers asked 109 dating couples (ages 18-25) to wear wrist biosensors and report (separately) on aspects of their relationship every hour over the course of a day. They found evidence of “linkage”—that is, similar EDA activity across both members of the couple. The pattern of results was complicated, but in short: linkage increased at times when participants felt close to their partners, but not when they felt annoyed with them. Overall, though, couples who were more satisfied in their relationships showed less linkage. 

My take: How crazy is it that our bodies’ physiological responses can sync up with our partners’?! Multiple studies have now shown this using different physiological measures, and it kind of blows my mind. Science is cool! Anyway, though the results here are a bit tricky to interpret, they generally show that this syncing up can be both good and bad. It may be that when we’re too synced up, we’re over-involved in our partners’ emotions, and their stress is “contagious.” But in some contexts, syncing might be good—it could mean that we’re empathizing and seeing their perspective. Emotion.

2. How can we help our toddlers learn about feelings?

Learning about emotions is an important task during childhood and relates to later self-regulation abilities, academic achievement, and social skills. So how can parents encourage “emotion knowledge” in their kids?