How should we represent social categories? Essentialism, which posits an internal category essence, has negative consequences such as group-based generalization and intolerance of nonconformity. Structural representations, which consider categories as situated in a larger context, could be more constructive. When considering a neutral context, adults who learned a structural (food availability) cause for a novel group’s diet, versus a biological (allergies, digestion) or cultural (taboo) cause, generalized in a context-sensitive manner, considered nonconformity to be more possible and acceptable, and suggested intervening on the structural context rather than the group to change the property. When considering social stratification, adults who learned a structural (discrimination) cause for a novel group working a low-status job, versus a biological (physically well-suited) or cultural (traditions/values) cause, showed more context-sensitive generalization, considered the present disparity to be more unacceptable, and suggested more structural interventions. Structural representations may consequently be a more constructive alternative to essentialism.

Gender stereotypes are early-emerging and harmful for young children. However, it is unclear how children reason about other people's gender stereotypes, especially when they differ from children's own beliefs. Across two preregistered experiments (total n=271), we tested whether 5- to 7-year-old children expect teachers to give engineering games to boy students and story games to girl students, even when children themselves know that these are not students' true preferences. Experiment 1 found that participants were more likely to predict that a teacher would give students stereotypical games when the teacher did not know (versus did know) the students' true counter-stereotypical interests. In Experiment 2, when the students expressed interest in both games, 6- and 7-year-olds selectively predicted that teachers would give students whom they had just met stereotypical games. Thus, by the time children enter school, they think that adults hold gender stereotypes, even if children know these stereotypes are inaccurate, which may impact children's learning and decision-making in the classroom.

Group disparities, such as the gender wage or racial achievement gap in the US, pervade societies. Unfortunately, children and adults often attribute these disparities to inherent (e.g. biological) features of groups, which leads to problematic outcomes (e.g., overgeneralizing, endorsing disparities). In contrast to inherent thinking, structural thinking about social disparities, which attributes disparities to a stable external structure, could lead to more positive social outcomes. Here, we induced biological, cultural, or structural thinking about an occupational disparity, and found that the latter caused adults (n = 90) to show more context-sensitive generalizations, judge the disparity as less acceptable, and provide more structural interventions. 7- to 9-year-olds (n = 70) showed similar but weaker results for more context-sensitive generalizations and judging the disparity as less acceptable. Cultural thinking showed an intermediate pattern between biological and structural thinking. Overall, structural thinking could be a fruitful way of mobilizing progress on social disparities.

How do young children acquire harmful gender stereotypes? This project tests one potential input: representations of others’ stereotypes. In a pilot study (n=16), 6-8 year-olds learned about a classroom with engineering games and story games. Children were shown four teacher-student pairs and for each were told that the teacher chose the game that the teacher thought a girl or boy student would like more. In line with gender-stereotypical reasoning, participants were more likely to predict that the teacher gave the engineering game to boys (68.75%) than to girls (28.13%, p = .031). Ongoing work is testing whether children make these same predictions when they, but not the teacher, know the students’ non-stereotypical interests (e.g., when a boy student likes stories over engineering), and how their responses are related to their own stereotypes. So far, this work suggests that young children expect adults to hold harmful gender stereotypes.