Racism and the Young Child
Steven O. Roberts, Ph.D., is an associate professor of psychology at Stanford University. He is also Director of Academic Programs at Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Professor Roberts received his PhD in psychology from the University of Michigan. His research examines the origins of racist thinking and the social structures that foster it. Awards and honors include: Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching (2020–2021), Rising Star Award from the Association for Psychological Science (2021), Sage Young Scholar Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (2021), Mission Award for Meta-Science from the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (2021), Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science (2021). He is also an amateur saxophonist, though even the amateurs would disagree.
In this talk, Professor Roberts will share some findings from his research on how young children think about race, and how various aspects of their environment (e.g., categories, parents, religious imagery) could result in biases.