I also think kids are built to strongly signal to adults (“this is bad, fix it”/”this is good, more of this”), but my impression is that they do that by giving accurate signals—they do feel quite distressed when they’re acting distressed. They do seem to change emotion much faster than adults, which I think can throw off adult intuitions about how real the child’s emotions are. I wonder if something like cortisol levels would be helpful in comparing.
I also think kids are built to strongly signal to adults (“this is bad, fix it”/”this is good, more of this”), but my impression is that they do that by giving accurate signals—they do feel quite distressed when they’re acting distressed. They do seem to change emotion much faster than adults, which I think can throw off adult intuitions about how real the child’s emotions are. I wonder if something like cortisol levels would be helpful in comparing.