Yarrow Dunham is an associate professor of psychology and cognitive science and the director of the SCD Lab. He completed his doctorate at Harvard University working with Mahzarin Banaji and Susan Carey, and has previously taught at Princeton and UC Merced. Outside the research world, his interests include exploring the great outdoors, the NBA, growing things in the garden, and an unhealthy obsession with his cat Zoe.

Rui Zhang is the joint lab manager for the SCD Lab and the Computational Social Cognition Lab. She is interested in exploring how children’s social cognition contributes to their awareness of social hierarchies and political systems across development. For example, does learning depend on the provider’s group membership? How do cognitive mechanisms predict children’s decisions to punish? Outside of the lab, Rui enjoys reading and spending time with her cats. 

Emily Gerdin is a sixth-year Ph.D. student working with Yarrow Dunham and Paul Bloom. Broadly, she is interested in children’s moral and social development. More specifically, she is fascinated by religion as a social category. Her work with Professor Dunham considers whether and why religions (as well as other belief-based categories) operate differently from other kinds of social categories. Outside of the lab, Emily is an avid baker and board game enthusiast.

Pinar Aldan is a fourth year Ph.D. student at Yale. She is broadly interested in understanding how people interpret social and economic inequalities. She currently has two main research projects, one focusing on how and under which conditions people justify existing inequalities, and the other one focusing on people’s ideas on intergenerational responsibility (e.g., whether people ascribe responsibility to the current generation of a social group if in the past this group harmed another one). In her free time, she enjoys traveling, knitting, and cooking.

Sifana Sohail is a third-year Ph.D. student at Yale. She is interested in examining people's understanding of existing societal inequalities, and how they relate to other aspects of social cognition. In particular she is interested in focusing on the intersection between judgements of fairness and intergroup relations. Outside of research, Sifana usually enjoys traveling and is notably passionate about food.

Aaron Baker is a second year PhD student working on the cognitive mechanisms underlying social interactions. He is interested in identifying how we employ different strategies for understanding behavior depending on the information available to us, as well as how these strategies emerge throughout development and vary across societies. Outside of the lab, Aaron likes to talk about about traveling and occasionally do it.

Aarthi Popat is a first-year PhD student in the Social Cognitive Development Lab and the Leonard Learning Lab. Before coming to Yale, she received her B.A. in Psychology from Stanford University and worked as a lab manager at UCSD. Aarthi's research in the Social Cognitive Development Lab focuses on how children's stereotypes about social categories (e.g., race, gender) contribute to backfiring effects of equity efforts. Eventually, she hopes to design interventions to mitigate these effects. In her free time, Aarthi loves to spend time outside and watch too much Below Deck (Down Under).

Santiago Calderon is from Redding, Connecticut and is a third-year undergraduate at Yale University studying psychology. Since he’s fascinated by every new psychological phenomenon he learns about, he still can’t decide what field of study to focus on; however, he is very interested in people’s perceptions of relationships and the unconscious biases that go along with them. When he is not reading a science fiction book or tinkering with his latest short story, he can be found working in the Yale Community Kitchen or playing an overcomplicated board game.

Abby Scott is a sophomore research assistant, and this is her second year with the lab. She is interested in how children perceive social groups and how they interact with each other in different ways. Outside of the lab, Abby is on the Yale Women’s Rugby team and enjoys finding new music and going on backpacking adventures. 

Morgan Alverson is a research assistant at the SCD lab and is a second year undergraduate at Yale College pursuing a degree in Psychology. She is interested in examining the ways children come to understand and process complex moral reasoning. Outside of the lab, she loves working with children, thrifting and up-cycling clothing, and playing the violin.

Sandi Myint is a first year at Yale hoping to major in Cognitive Science. She is very excited to learn more about developmental psychology, especially around children, regarding how they develop their values and how they process social life in the world. Outside of the lab, she likes to cafe-hop, try new dishes, doodle around, and cook with friends. 

Ana Sofia Viejo is a research Assistant at the SCD lab and a Junior at Yale College double majoring in Psychology and Economics. She is interested in how and to what extent children understand social and economic constructs which adults abide by. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading, traveling, and going out to New Haven restaurants with her friends.

Sophie Peterson is from Wilton, Connecticut and was a summer intern in the SCD lab in 2023. She is a current student at Vanderbilt University pursuing a degree in Cognitive Studies and Elementary Education with a minor in Spanish. Sophie is interested in moral and developmental psychology. She is passionate about working with children, and in her free time she enjoys reading a good book, baking, and exploring new food experiences with friends.

Mackenzie Briscoe is the previous joint lab manager for the SCD Lab and the Computational Social Cognition Lab. They are interested in how kids learn about social hierarchies and institutional power, specifically when the given information is not obvious or explicit. How do we communicate to the world and to each other who is ‘in charge’? How do we determine which rules are considered legitimate? And how can we access all of this information without explicitly saying it to one another, as is so often the case out in the real world? Beyond research, Mack enjoys making music and very simple RPGs.

Yaseen Ismail was an intern from the UK, University of Bath, working in the lab for the 2022-2023 academic year. His main research interests broadly involve the intersect of social cognition with morality, ethics and values alongside how this may relate to group attitudes and perceptions of fairness. Outside of the lab, Yaseen enjoys going to the gym, surfing, making music and eating other people’s food.

Erin Hewald was an intern from Cardiff University in the U.K working for the SCD for the 2022-2023 academic year. Her research interests include children's understanding of social hierarchies and how their perceived social status may influence developmental and social outcomes. Outside the lab Erin enjoys spending time outside, going on long walks and swimming in the sea.

Carlota Saumell was a Ph.D. student from the University of Barcelona visiting the SCD lab. Her work focuses on the development of preschoolers’ perspective-taking abilities within the context of intergroup cognition. The nature of her research demands a multicultural approach; understanding the complexity of cultural social constructs while aiming to identify universal human cognitive processes. In her free time, she hikes, plays tennis and writes. She is hoping to finish a novel before the defense of her thesis.

Xin (Kate) Yang was a Ph.D. student at Yale. She is interested in investigating the causes and consequences of intergroup biases, lay people’s understandings of inequalities and structural constraints, as well as how intergroup thinking interacts with cooperation and moral reasoning. Ultimately, she hopes her work will help with combating biases, reducing inequalities, promoting cooperation, and creating a more just world. Apart from research, she enjoys all kinds of outdoor activities and making friends.

Josie Davies was an intern from Cardiff University in the U.K. and has worked for the SCD lab in 2021. Her main research interests involve understanding individuals social preferences and how these relate to in and out group behavior. Josie is currently working on a project investigating how race and nationality influence individuals social preferences. She is also interested in disability as a social category and is interested in researching how and why helping behaviors towards individuals differ cross-culturally. In her free time, she enjoys taking photos, travelling and meeting new people.

Vanessa Llamas was an ESI PREP post-bacc at Yale. She is interested in (dis)/ability as a social category. More specifically, she seeks to learn how children form beliefs about people with (dis)/abilities. Via her work, Vanessa hopes to improve attitudes towards people with (dis)/abilities and prevent ableism. In her spare time, Vanessa reads science fiction and fantasy, Facetimes her family cat, Carrot, and eats way too much spicy food.

Natanya Rosen was a summer intern in the SCD Lab. She is a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University where she works at Columbia's Social and Moral Cognition Lab. Natanya's primary research interest is moral psychology and she is interested in the SCD Lab's research on children's perceptions of fairness and what factors influence how children ensure equity. Outside of the lab, Natanya enjoys reading, hiking, and playing board/card games with friends!

Katie Vasquez was the joint lab manager for the SCD Lab and the Mind and Development Lab. She is interested in social and moral psychology, and in particular, how social development influences the development of moral judgments and behavior. Katie is currently a graduate student at University of Chicago working with Alex Shaw.

Alexander Noyes was a Ph.D. student working with Yarrow Dunham and Frank Keil. He is primarily interested in concepts-categories and their relationship to causal reasoning. In Professor Dunham's lab, he studied children and adult's causal beliefs about social categories, such as race and gender. He is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Cognition and Perception department at NYU working with Marjorie Rhodes.

Rodney Tompkins was a research assistant in the SCD Lab. He is generally interested in the development of social cognition, and particularly in how children and adults reason about intergroup and interpersonal relationships. Rodney is currently a graduate student at UC San Diego.

Ilayda Orhan was a research assistant senior thesis student in the lab who graduated from Yale with a degree in Cognitive Science in 2021. She is now a graduate student at NYU working with Maureen Craig. She is interested in finding ways to motivate people belonging to different social groups to see through each others’ eyes and to work towards a more just society

Chloe Young was an intern from Cardiff University in the UK working for the SCD lab for the 2020-2021 academic year. While working in the lab, Chloe studied the influence of pre-existing factors on merit-based resource allocations. In the future, Chloe hopes to study neuroscience and developmental disorders. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, running and hanging out with friends.

Sophie Arnold was the lab manager for the SCD Lab from 2018-2020. She is now a graduate student at NYU working with Andrei Cimpian. She is primarily interested in understanding the reasons behind the development of behaviors and preferences that lead to societal gender disparities like the wage gap. She is also interested in questions at the intersection of moral reasoning and group membership.

Ashley Jordan was a Ph.D. student in the Social Cognitive Development Lab and the Infant Cognition Center under the direction of Karen Wynn. During her time at Yale, she studied social cognition in infancy and early childhood.  Her work looks at the mechanisms that underlie people’s emerging evaluations of social life with a particular emphasis on how messages about similarity guide children’s social preferences and inform their inferences about group structure. She is now a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Princeton University working with Kristina Olson in the Human Diversity Lab.

Kayleigh Parsons was an intern from Cardiff University in the UK working in the SCD lab for the 2019-2020 academic year. Her main interest is in morality, and the influence of groups on how individuals develop moral beliefs. She is also interested in prosocial behaviour, and what causes individuals to act in a prosocial way. In her spare time, she enjoys looking for all the best coffee shops, reading feminist novels, and exploring the outdoors.

Anna-Katrine Sussex was an intern from the University of Bath in the UK working in the SCD lab for the 2019-2020 academic year. She is interested in the influence of empathy on both individual and group interactions. In her free time she enjoys travelling, archery and reading dystopian novels.

Gabi Seo was a research assistant and senior thesis student at the SCD Lab in 2020. She is currently a Research Associate at the Thyroid Head & Neck Cancer Foundation in New York City, and after working, she plans to attend medical school. She is especially interested in the application of social cognition within medical education and hopes to pursue pediatrics.

Fan Yang was a postdoctoral associate working with Yarrow Dunham. Fan is interested in the moral and motivational tendencies that helps us transcend ourselves. She studies how we solve moral conflicts and the role of morality in happiness. Fan is currently a Research Assistant Professor at University of Chicago.

Allison Bradshaw was a former RA and senior thesis student at the SCD Lab in 2019. She is currently a Research Assistant at the UT Dallas Baby Brain Lab under PI Meghan Swanson, where she is working on a project studying how caregiver communication affects infants' cognitive development. She is broadly interested in children's social cognitive development, and specifically interested in children's ideas about gender and how this changes over development.

Ragna Nass was an intern from the University of Bath in the UK working in the SCD lab for the 2018-2019 academic year. She is interested in how social categories, especially gender, affect social behavior. She enjoys traveling, reading good books and large cups of coffee.

Laura Rodriguez was an intern from Bath University in the UK working in the SCD Lab for the 2018-2019 academic year. She speak 3 languages, and, in her free time, her interests include discovering new coffee places, the NBA, reading, and organizing many travelling projects.

Jan Engelmann, having spent a wonderful year as a post doctoral research fellow in the Social Cognitive Development Lab, has moved to UC Berkeley, where he is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. Jan studies social reasoning in human children and chimpanzees.

Helena Wippick was the lab manager for the SCD Lab from 2016-2018. She graduated from Bard College in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She is interested in the development of social category concepts and intergroup cognition. 

Gina Roussos recieved her Ph. D. from Yale University in Social Psychology where she worked with Jack Dovidio and Yarrow Dunham. Her work at the SCD Lab examined the development of prejudice and stereotyping in preschool age children.

Nadia Chernyak was a postdoctoral researcher. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Cornell University. Her previous research has focused on how children form ideas about choice, and how choice might meaningfully relate to our emerging prosocial behavior. Presently, she is interested generally in social reciprocity, numerical cognition, and prosocial behavior across the early to middle childhood range. She is now an Assistant Professor at Cognitive Sciences Dept at the University of California - Irvine.

Lisa Chalik was a postdoctoral fellow working with Yarrow Dunham and Karen Wynn. Her research investigates the development of intergroup cognition, primarily focusing on how young children incorporate social categories into their moral judgments. She is now an assistant professor at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women.

Richard Ahl was a Ph.D. student at Yale. His work in the SCD lab surrounded children's expectations regarding the giving of resource-rich and resource-poor people.  Rick also worked with Frank Keil in the Cognition and Development Lab on how children reason about complex artifacts. He is currently a post doctoral researcher in the Cooperation lab at Boston College. 

Dorsa Amir was a graduate student in the Yale biological anthropology department. Her research adopts a cross-cultural and developmental perspective to explore the role of the local environment in adaptively shaping behavior and preferences. Currently, she is a post doctoral researcher in the Cooperation lab at Boston College where she investigates cross-cultural variation in the development of risk & time preferences, early life socioeconomic effects on behavior, and the role of scarcity in cognitive development. 
 

Trini Chan was an intern from Bath University in the UK working in the SCD Lab for the 2017-2018 academic year. She is interested in the development of children’s social networks and, having spent a year living in Japan, the way cultural influences affect this. In her free time, she enjoys playing badminton, harmonizing with Martha and booking flights on a whim.

Martha Fitch Little was an intern from Bath University in the UK working in the SCD Lab for the 2017-2018 academic year. In her spare time she can be found making elaborate vegetarian meals, losing at Settlers of Catan or singing to herself or at Trini.

Antonia Misch was a postdoctoral fellow in the SCD lab. She completed her Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, working primarily with Malinda Carpenter and Harriet Over. She studies the development of intergroup cognition in children.

You-jung Choi was a postdoctoral fellow working with Yarrow Dunham, Laurie Santos, and Karen Wynn. She went on to work at Harvard with Elizabeth Spelke. She now is an assistant professor of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at Southern Illinois University. Her main research area is social cognitive development in infancy and early childhood. Specifically, she studies development of theory of mind understanding and moral reasoning.

Jonathan Schulz was a postdoctoral fellow in the SCD lab, having previously worked at the University of Nottingham. His research focuses on cross-cultural differences in social norms and decision making. He is currently a research associate at Harvard University with Joe Henrich at the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology. He has conducted experiments all around the globe, investigating societal differences in intrinsic honesty and cooperation. He is particularly interested in the permeability of societies' network structures and its effect on moral behavior.

Shirley Duong graduated from the University of New Haven. She is interested in children's social group affiliations and biases. She was an RA in the SCD Lab working with Richard Ahl and Alexander Noyes. She now works as a lab manager at Jonathan Beier's lab for Early Social Cognition at University of Maryland. 

Nathan Vasquez was a participant in the ESI Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program working with Dr. Dunham. In the SCD lab he studied how group membership influenced children's beliefs about others. Nathan is now a graduate student with Kristin Shutts and Chuck Kalish at University of Wisconsin, Madison. 

Shaina Coogan was the former lab manager for the SCD Lab. She graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University in 2013 with a degree in psychology. Shaina went on to receive her Master’s of Public Health program at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is currently working as a project manager and practice coach at the University of Washington AIMS Center, which develops, tests, and helps implement collaborative care and bi-directional integration strategies

Marina Ebert worked on a study of the developmental origins of gratitude and its effects on prosocial behavior, specifically focused on distinguishing the complex emotion of gratitude from generally positive mood and whether feeling gratitude may lead to a greater chance of helping a stranger. In addition, Marina is conducting an evaluation of a novel assessment of mood and emotion understanding among young children. She is currently a researcher at Harvard’s Laboratory for Developmental Studies focusing on musical cognition. When not involved in research, Marina enjoys leading kids’ yoga lessons and dancing adult Argentine tango.

Suzanne Horwitz was a graduate student in the Yale social psychology department working with John Dovidio. Broadly, her research examines the role that social psychological processes play in perpetuating societal wealth inequality. She completed her dissertation on the causes and consequences of implicit wealth bias. In the fall of 2015, she begas working as a postdoctoral researcher with Balazs Kovacs.

Katherine McAuliffe was a postdoctoral fellow working with Yarrow Dunham and Laurie Santos. She studies fairness from a developmental and evolutionary perspective. She is now an Assistant Professor at Boston College and the director of the Boston College Cooperation Lab.

Alexander Dieball was a Visiting Assistant in Research from the University of Göttingen, Germany. He worked on a project concerning children’s understanding of normality with Joshua Knobe and Yarrow Dunham, combining the disciplines of experimental philosophy and social cognitive development. In his spare time, he reassess European prejudices about American culture.