Kristin Shutts, PhD
Position title: Professor, Psychology

PhD, Harvard University
Contact Information
Waisman Center
1500 Highland Ave
Room 538B
Madison, WI 53705
608.265.8949
kshutts@wisc.edu
Lab Website: Social Kids Lab
Research Statement
I study how infants and children apprehend their social world. I am particularly interested in the development of social categories and inter-group bias in infancy and early childhood. When do children come to see themselves and others as belonging to different social categories (e.g., gender, ethnicity, social class), which distinctions matter most to children, and how does this change over development and a result of immersion in a particular culture? What mechanisms support the development of social biases, and what kinds of interventions might ameliorate them?
Selected Publications
-
Swerbenski, K. L., Barnett, K. C., Devine, P. G., & Shutts, K. (2024). Making “Fast Friends” Online in Middle Childhood and Early Adolescence. Social development (Oxford, England), 33(1), e12708. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12708
-
Scott, K. E., Henkel, M. A., Moens, O. M., Devine, P. G., & Shutts, K. (2023). Children’s evaluations of and reactions to racial discrimination. Developmental psychology, 59(7), 1190–1202. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001542
-
King, R. A., Jordan, A. E., Liberman, Z., Kinzler, K. D., & Shutts, K. (2023). Young children apply the homophily principle to their reasoning about social relationships. Developmental psychology, 59(5), 928–939. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001517
-
Scott, K. E., Ash, T. L., Immel, B., Liebeck, M. A., Devine, P. G., & Shutts, K. (2023). Engaging White parents to address their White children’s racial biases in the Black-White context. Child development, 94(1), 74–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13840
-
Heck, I. A., Shutts, K., & Kinzler, K. D. (2022). Children’s thinking about group-based social hierarchies. Trends in cognitive sciences, 26(7), 593–606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2022.04.004
-
Sierksma, J., Brey, E., & Shutts, K. (2022). Racial Stereotype Application in 4-to-8-Year-Old White American Children: Emergence and Specificity. Journal of cognition and development : official journal of the Cognitive Development Society, 23(5), 660–685. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2022.2090945
-
Plate, R. C., Shutts, K., Cochrane, A., Green, C. S., & Pollak, S. D. (2021). Testimony bias lingers across development under uncertainty. Developmental psychology, 57(12), 2150–2164. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001253
-
Sierksma, J., & Shutts, K. (2021). Competence-based helping: Children’s consideration of need when providing others with help. Journal of experimental child psychology, 210, 105206. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105206
-
Shutts, K., & Kalish, C. W. (2021). Intuitive sociology. Advances in child development and behavior, 61, 335–374. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.acdb.2021.05.004
-
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 : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 15(5), 1178–1186. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620927702
-
Sierksma, J., & Shutts, K. (2020). When Helping Hurts: Children Think Groups That Receive Help Are Less Smart. Child development, 91(3), 715–723. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13351
-
Scott, K. E., Shutts, K., & Devine, P. G. (2020). Parents’ Expectations for and Reactions to Children’s Racial Biases. Child development, 91(3), 769–783. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13231
-
King, R. A., Scott, K. E., Renno, M. P., & Shutts, K. (2020). Counterstereotyping can change children’s thinking about boys’ and girls’ toy preferences. Journal of experimental child psychology, 191, 104753. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104753
-
DeJesus, J. M., Du, K. M., Shutts, K., & Kinzler, K. D. (2019). How information about what is “healthy” versus “unhealthy” impacts children’s consumption of otherwise identical foods. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 148(12), 2091–2103. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000588
-
Terrizzi, B. F., Brey, E., Shutts, K., & Beier, J. S. (2019). Children’s developing judgments about the physical manifestations of power. Developmental psychology, 55(4), 793–808. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000657
-
Brey, E., & Shutts, K. (2018). Children Use Nonverbal Cues from an Adult to Evaluate Peers. Journal of cognition and development : official journal of the Cognitive Development Society, 19(2), 121–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2018.1449749
-
Plate RC, Fulvio JM, Shutts K, Green CS, Pollak SD. (2018). Probability Learning: Changes in Behavior Across Time and Development. Child Development. 89(1):205-218. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12718.
-
DeJesus JM, Shutts K, Kinzler KD. (2017). Mere social knowledge impacts children’s consumption and categorization of foods. Developmental Science, 21(5):e12627. doi: 10.1111/desc.12627.
-
Shutts K, Kenward B, Falk H, Ivegran A, Fawcett C. (2017). Early preschool environments and gender: Effects of gender pedagogy in Sweden. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 162:1-17. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.014.
-
Shutts K, Brey EL, Dornbusch LA, Slywotzky N, Olson KR. (2016) Children Use Wealth Cues to Evaluate Others. PLoS One. 2;11(3):e0149360. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.
-
Shutts, K. (2015) Young Children’s Preferences: Gender, Race, and Social Status. Child Development Perspectives, 9, 262-266.
-
Renno MP, Shutts K. (2015) Children’s social category-based giving and its correlates: Expectations and preferences. Developmental Psychology, 51(4):533-43. doi: 10.1037/a0038819.
-
DeJesus JM, Shutts K, Kinzler KD. (2015) Eww she sneezed! Contamination context affects children’s food preferences and consumption. Appetite, 87:303-9. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2014.12.222.
-
Brey E, Shutts K. (2015) Children use nonverbal cues to make inferences about social power. Child Development, 86(1):276-86. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12334.
-
Huckstadt LK, Shutts K. (2014) How Young Children Evaluate People With and Without Disabilities. Journal of Social Issues. 1;70(1):99-114.
-
Weisman K, Johnson MV, Shutts K. (2014) Young children’s automatic encoding of social categories. Developmental Science, 18(6):1036-43. doi: 10.1111/desc.12269.
-
Shutts K, Pemberton CK, Spelke ES. (2013) Children’s Use of Social Categories in Thinking About People and Social Relationships. Journal of Cognition and Development. 14(1):35-62.
-
Shutts K, Kinzler KD, Dejesus JM. (2013) Understanding Infants’ and Children’s Social Learning About Foods: Previous Research and New Prospects. Developmental Psychology. 49(3):419-25.
-
Baltazar NC, Shutts K, Kinzler KD. (2012) Children show heightened memory for threatening social actions. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. May;112(1):102-10.
-
Shutts K, Kinzler KD, Katz RC, Tredoux C, Spelke ES. (2011) Race preferences in children: insights from South Africa. Developmental Science. Nov;14(6):1283-91.
-
Shutts K, Banaji MR, Spelke ES. (2010) Social categories guide young children’s preferences for novel objects. Developmental Science. Jul;13(4):599-610.
-
Shutts K, Ornkloo H, von Hofsten C, Keen R, Spelke ES. (2009) Young children’s representations of spatial and functional relations between objects. Child Development. Nov-Dec;80(6):1612-27.