Katharine Scott

Children express social biases based on race, gender, ability, socioeconomic status, language, accent, and many other social categories starting in early childhood. In my research, I evaluate children’s early emerging social biases and methods that could be used for reducing these biases. A few specific research topics are highlighted below.

1. How do children learn social biases? In this line of work, I am evaluating the messages that children receive about race from various sources. For example, what messages about race are conveyed in children’s books? What are parents communicating to children about race-related topics and events like Black Lives Matter or the murder of George Floyd? How do teachers approach race-related topics in early childhood education settings?
2. Measuring children’s social biases. To understand children’s social biases and to evaluate whether we can reduce children’s biases, it is critical to have sensitive and meaningful measures of children’s social biases. To this end, I have been developing measures of children’s social biases and examining the psychometric properties of existing measures of children’s social cognition.
3. Parents’ beliefs about their children’s biases. This line of research focuses on how parents think about children’s racial and gender biases and how we can motivate parents to address children’s early emerging social biases. Do parents think children express social biases? Are parents concerned about children’s social biases? How can we increase parents’ awareness, concern about, and motivation to address children’s social biases?
4. Empowering Behaviors to Address Race with Kids (EmBARK). In this project, my collaborators and I are conducting a longitudinal evaluation of an intervention program to teach White parents how to address race with their 5- to 7-year-old White children.

Representative Publications

Scott, K. E., Cochrane, A., King, R., Kalish, C., & Shutts, K (in press). Social cognitive tasks predict children’s academic achievement above and beyond academic report cards. Journal of Cognition and Development. https://psyarxiv.com/hxdbv/

Scott, K. E., Henkel, M. A., Moens, O. M., Devine, P. G., & Shutts, K. (in press). Children’s Evaluation of and Reactions to Racial Discrimination. Developmental Psychology. https://psyarxiv.com/f4xpc/  

Scott, K. E., Ash, T., Immel, B., Liebeck, M., Devine, P. G., & Shutts, K. (2022). Engaging White parents to address their children’s anti-Black biases. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13840

Scott, K. E., Shutts, K., & Devine, P. G. (2020). Parents’ role in addressing children’s racial bias: The case of speculation without evidence. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(5), 1178-1186. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1745691620927702

King, R., Scott, K. E., Renno, M., & Shutts, K. (2020). Counterstereotyping can change children’s thinking about boys’ and girls’ toy preferences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104753

Scott, K. E., Shutts, K., & Devine, P. G. (2020). Parents’ expectations for and reactions to their children’s racial biases. Child Development, 91(3), 769-783. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13231