Intersectional Perspectives on the Development of Social Cognition

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

How children learn and use social categories is crucial to their ability to navigate the social world. Yet, research on the development of social cognition rarely considers how children use multiple social categories—for example, how children consider a person’s gender and race together. This symposium brings together three papers that all use an intersectional framework to consider how children’s use of any given social category may or may not be influenced by other social categories.
Paper 1 investigates how children’s representation of gender is influenced by race across early-to-mid childhood. Using reaction time and error rates as indices of category representation, children were slower to categorize Black women as women, relative to gender categorization of White and Asian women. Paper 2 investigates whether young children and adults alike applied gender stereotypes more strongly to child or adult targets. Both children and adults largely endorsed gender stereotypes regardless of target age; however, for a subset of stereotypes adults expressed intersectional beliefs. Paper 3 investigates how elementary-aged-children’s intergroup attitudes may take into account a target’s gender, gender-typicality, race, and social class. In deciding who to include or exclude in a virtual classroom, children considered gender typicality, race, and social class, such that they were most likely to exclude gender non-conforming boys and high-SES Asian kids.
The discussant and panelists will highlight the theoretical and methodological considerations of adopting an intersectional perspective, noting both benefits (e.g., generalizability of findings) and drawbacks (e.g., additional resources).

Sub Unit

• Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Chair

• Ryan Lei, Haverford College

Discussant

• Katherine D. Kinzler, University of Chicago

Individual Presentations

• The Development of Intersectional Social Prototypes - Presenting Author: Rachel Leshin, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Ryan Lei, Haverford College; Non-Presenting Author: Magnolia Byrne, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Marjorie Rhodes, New York University

• Effects of stimulus age on the endorsement of gender stereotypes - Presenting Author: Tara Mandalaywala, University of Massachusetts Amherst; Non-Presenting Author: Alix Alto, City University of New York Graduate Center

• Children's Intergroup Attitudes at the Intersection of Race, Gender, Gender Typicality, and Social Class - Presenting Author: Negin Ghavami, Loyola Marymount University; Non-Presenting Author: Manpreet Dhillon Brar, California State University - San Bernardino; Non-Presenting Author: Taylor Hazelbaker, The College of St. Scholastica; Non-Presenting Author: Rashmita S. Mistry, University of California - Los Angeles; Non-Presenting Author: Sandra Graham, University of California, Los Angeles