Welcome to the Social Cognitive Development Lab at Yale University!

We are part of the Yale Developmental Labs.

We study how young minds master the dizzying complexity of the social world.

Latest SCDL Publications

Publications

Expectations of Intergroup Empathy Bias Emerge by Early Childhood

Rodney Tompkins, Katie Vasquez, Emily Gerdin, Yarrow Dunham, & Zoe Liberman (2024). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Children’s Use of Race in Their Social Judgments: A Multi-Site, Multi-Racial Group Comparison

Mercedes A. Muñoz, Elizabeth A. Enright, Sarah E. Gaither, May Ling D. Halim, Kristin Pauker, Kristina R. Olson, Yarrow Dunham. (2025). Collabra: Psychology

Across six societies children engage in costly third-party punishment of unfair sharing

Katherine McAuliffe, Yarrow Dunham, Samantha Bangayan, Tara Callaghan, John Corbit, Henry G. W. Dixson, Ann Finkel, Emily Otali, Sophie Riddick, Patrick Tusiime, Felix Warneken. (2025). Communications Psychology

Testing the generalizability of minimal group attitudes in minority and majority race children

Brenda Straka, Ashley Jordan, Alisha Osornio, May Ling Halim, Kristin Pauker, Kristina Olson, Yarrow Dunham, Sarah Gaither (2025) Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Gender attitudes and gender discrimination among ethnically and geographically diverse young children

May Ling Halim, Jessica Glazier, M. Anais Martinez, Adam Stanaland, Sarah Gaither, Yarrow Dunham, Kristin Pauker, and Kristina Olson (2024) Infant and Child Development