Research
Working Papers
How Do We Teach Emotions? Representation in Children’s Textbooks and Literature
Abstract: Emotional intelligence constitutes a key component of human capital, shaped partially by educational materials. Using machine learning and generative AI tools, we examine emotional content in public-school textbooks and children’s literature. A stark mismatch emerges: text exposes children to a broad emotional range, but images overwhelmingly depict happiness and calm, regardless of emotions described in text on the same page. Nearly half of pages show zero overlap between the emotions described in text and those shown in images. This pattern persists across time, contexts, and identities. Household purchases and library inventories suggest content may be endogenously shaped by consumer demand favoring “positive” cover imagery, implying market forces narrow the emotional landscape children encounter.
Other Publications
The Migration Phenomenon in Informal Housing Settlements:
Challenges for Urban Public Policies in Chile
With Ray Anderson, Florencia Vergara, Ignacio Silva, Paz Zuñiga,
and Pia Palacios. Spanish.
DOI: 10.7764/plan.051.113
The Common Rationality of Liberalism and Science through the
Feminist Lens
With Cristóbal Bellolio. Spanish.
DOI: 10.29393/At526-5RCDB20005
Towards a New Dawn: Trajectories of Exclusion of Women Living in
Informal Housing Settlements in Chile
With Florencia Vergara, Paz Zuñiga, and Pia Palacios. Spanish.
The Growing Problem of Housing Affordability in Chile
With Ray Anderson. Spanish.
Quantitative Housing Deficit in Chile
With Pia Palacios. Spanish.