معرفی
Ariel Kalil is a Professor at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy, where she directs the Center for Human Potential and Public Policy and co-directs the Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab. Her work bridges developmental psychology, behavioral economics, and public policy to address parenting behaviors, child development, and socioeconomic inequality through rigorous field experimentation.
Professor Kalil's research centers on how economic conditions shape parenting practices and child outcomes, with particular focus on historical trends in income-based gaps in cognitive and non-cognitive development. She designs behavioral interventions to strengthen parental engagement in low-income families using insights from neuroscience and decision science, examining how poverty and inequality affect developmental trajectories. Her approach integrates longitudinal data analysis with randomized controlled trials to identify scalable solutions for reducing disparities.
Her recent publications (2023-2025) reveal a concentrated effort on digital and behavioral tools to enhance parenting practices—particularly in literacy, math skill development, and school engagement for disadvantaged children. These studies consistently employ field experiments across diverse contexts to test low-cost interventions like informational nudges, identity priming, and digital libraries, demonstrating how small behavioral changes can yield significant developmental gains while addressing structural barriers.
Scientific Awards:
- William T. Grant Foundation Faculty Scholars Award
- Changing Faces of America’s Children Young Scholars Award from the Foundation for Child Development
- National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Award for Early Research Contributions (2003)
Professor Kalil's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and multiple private foundations, supporting her lab's development of evidence-based parenting interventions. Her work emphasizes translating behavioral insights into practical policy tools through partnerships with schools, community organizations, and government agencies, with particular attention to implementation fidelity and scalability in real-world settings.
The Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab, under her co-direction, operates as an interdisciplinary hub testing interventions in naturalistic environments—from digital libraries for shared reading to personalized teacher nudges. Current projects focus on leveraging behavioral economics to overcome attentional scarcity in low-income households, design effective parental engagement strategies, and measure long-term impacts of early childhood interventions on intergenerational mobility.
