The research in The Gender and Racial Atittudies Lab focuses on children’s intergroup attitudes, including social stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. It is characterized by two general qualities: (1) a concern with examining the consequences of children's changing cognitive skills for their intergroup attitudes and (2) the use of experimental paradigms in which the effects of manipulations (e.g. "interventions"), on children's stereotypic beliefs and behavior are examined.

Our research has four broad themes or areas of focus:

1. The examination of the consequences of gender and racial attitudes for children’s development.
2. The understanding of how children’s intergroup attitudes affect conceptions of the self, and the reciprocal effects of self-conceptions on the formation and maintenance of intergroup attitudes.
3. The development of a broad theory that describes the exogenous (environmental, external) and endogenous (organismic, internal) factors that contribute to the formation of intergroup attitudes (e.g., stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination).
4. The mechanisms of gender and racial attitude change.

Each of these themes will be discussed further in subsequent sections:

1. The consequences of stereotyping
2. The reciprocal effects of intergroup attitudes and self-conceptions
3. The formation of intergroup attitudes
4. Mechanisms involved in the reduction of intergroup bias

Want a more general overview of stereotype and prejudice formation in children? Check out our UTOPIA site: Understanding, Preventing, and Reducing Stereotypes in Children (page will open in a new window)