Our Research

The overarching goal of the DEM Lab is to conduct research geared towards promoting social equity and preempting the formation of social biases during childhood. Our projects touch on three interrelated areas.

Developing conceptions of equity and fairness

We examine how children’s conceptions of fairness develop by studying how they weigh equity, equality, merit, and need when evaluating and acting in social contexts.

Publications in this area (11)

• A developmental-science perspective on social inequality (Elenbaas, Rizzo, & Killen, 2020)
• The role of competitive and cooperative norms in the development of deviant evaluations (McGuire, Rizzo, Killen, & Rutland, 2019)
• Young children's ability to recognize and challenge unfair treatment of others in group contexts (Killen, Elenbaas, & Rizzo, 2018)
• Intergroup exclusion, moral judgments, and social cognition (Killen, Rutland, Rizzo, & McGuire, 2018)
• The development of intergroup resource allocation: The role of cooperative and competitive in-group norms (McGuire, Rizzo, Killen, & Rutland, 2018)
• Young children's inclusion decisions in moral and social–conventional group norm contexts (Rizzo, Cooley, Elenbaas, & Killen, 2018)
• The role of group processes in social exclusion and resource allocation decisions (Killen, Elenbaas, Rizzo, & Rutland, 2017)
• Rectifying social inequalities in a resource allocation task (Elenbaas, Rizzo, Cooley, & Killen, 2016)
• Children's understanding of equity in the context of inequality (Rizzo & Killen, 2016)
• Children's recognition of fairness and others' welfare in a resource allocation task: Age related changes (Rizzo, Elenbaas, Cooley, & Killen, 2016)
• Morality, intentionality and intergroup attitudes (Killen & Rizzo, 2014)

Preempting social biases

We study ways to preempt the emergence of social biases by identifying when and how social biases first emerge during early childhood. By the time they’re 3 years old, children already demonstrate a range of biases, including gender, racial, and linguistic biases, and in some contexts will even form biases about what color t-shirt someone is wearing. Our research in this area asks why.

Publications in this area (11)

• Beyond what is said: Generic language in parent–child conversations and children's racial bias (Britton, Arnold, Rizzo, Brenner, Gordon, & Rhodes, 2026)
• The role of children's media in White, US children's developing racial biases (Rizzo, Moran, Leveille, Boyd, Chum, Liles, Klein, Britton, & Rhodes, 2026)
• Parent inequality beliefs and racial socialization practices: Implications for children's anti-Black biases (Williams, Britton, & Rizzo, 2026)
• Does racial diversity affect White children's racial bias and reasoning? Depends on where they live and how their social world is structured (Burke, Rizzo, Britton, & Rhodes, 2023)
• Testing the effectiveness of the Developing Inclusive Youth program: A multisite randomized control trial (Killen, Burkholder, D'Esterre, Sims, Glidden, Yee, et al., 2022)
• Racial biases emerge in childhood: How caregiver behaviour can promote anti-racist worldviews (Rizzo & Williams, 2022)
• Developmental origins of anti-Black bias in White children in the United States: Exposure to and beliefs about racial inequality (Rizzo, Britton, & Rhodes, 2022)
• Beliefs about social norms and racial inequalities predict variation in the early development of racial bias (Rizzo, Green, Dunham, Bruneau, & Rhodes, 2022)
• Desire to play with counterstereotypical peers is related to gender stereotypes and playmate experiences (Sims, Rizzo, Mulvey, & Killen, 2022)
• The psychology of American racism (Roberts & Rizzo, 2021)
• Expectations for cross-ethnic inclusion by Asian American children and adolescents (Hitti, Elenbaas, Noh, Rizzo, Cooley, & Killen, 2020)

Developmental mechanisms and psychological processes

To identify how conceptions of fairness and social biases develop, we also examine a range of social and social-cognitive processes:

• Beliefs about social structures: how children come to explain social inequalities, as caused by individual factors (some people work harder or are smarter) or structural ones (some people are advantaged or disadvantaged by social systems), and what follows from those beliefs.
• Social status: how children’s experiences within different social statuses shape how they think, act, and reason.
• Theory of mind: children’s ability to recognize that other people have their own mental and emotional states that differ from their own.

Publications in this area (12)

• How social status shapes US children's beliefs about social mobility (Mei, Dassani, Chao, & Rizzo, 2027)
• Theory of prejudiced mind predicts children's understanding of and responses to discrimination by authorities (Chao, Williams, Mei, & Rizzo, 2026)
• Social status is related to children's responses to third-person inequalities (Chao, Mei, & Rizzo, 2025)
• The effect of group status on children's hierarchy-reinforcing beliefs (Rizzo, Roberts, & Rhodes, 2023)
• Children's evaluations of individually and structurally based inequalities: The role of status (Rizzo & Killen, 2020)
• Do children distinguish between resource inequalities with individual versus structural origins? (Rizzo, Elenbaas, & Vanderbilt, 2020)
• Unintentional and intentional falsehoods: The role of morally relevant theory of mind (D'Esterre, Rizzo, & Killen, 2019)
• Lying, negligence, or lack of knowledge? Children's intention-based moral reasoning about resource claims (Rizzo, Li, Burkholder, & Killen, 2019)
• How social status influences our understanding of others' mental states (Rizzo & Killen, 2018)
• Theory of mind is related to children's resource allocations in gender stereotypic contexts (Rizzo & Killen, 2018)
• Theory of mind and resource allocation in the context of hidden inequality (Li, Rizzo, Burkholder, & Killen, 2017)
• Challenging gender stereotypes: Theory of mind and peer group dynamics (Mulvey, Rizzo, & Killen, 2016)

Methods

We conduct research in the lab, in local schools, and online through Developing Minds Online, one of the first platforms for unmoderated, remote research with children, so families can take part anytime, anywhere.

Publications in this area (1)

• Advancing developmental science via unmoderated remote research with children (Rhodes, Rizzo, Foster-Hanson, Moty, Leshin, Wang, et al., 2020)

Other work

Publications in this area (3)

• Preschoolers selectively trust and selectively share with others based on their past accuracy and intentions (Vanderbilt, Rizzo, & Blankenship, 2023)
• Children's confession- and lying-related emotion expectancies: Developmental differences and connections to parent-reported confession behavior (Smith & Rizzo, 2017)
• When and why parents prompt their children to apologize: The roles of transgression type and parenting style (Smith, Noh, Rizzo, & Harris, 2017)