Sylvia Perry

During her year at CASBS, Sylvia Perry will focus on manuscripts that stem from two major lines of work. The first line will focus on the extent to which norms around admitting and discussing racism may contribute to anti-racism. This work will inform our understanding of the verbal and nonverbal signals that White individuals may send to others when they witness racism, how these signals shape norms around anti-racist behaviors, and the role of personal awareness in confronting prejudice when individuals witness racist behavior. The second line will focus on the role of racial parental socialization in the development of White children’s attitudes toward Black individuals. This work will inform our understanding of how parents’ (spoken and unspoken) racial socialization messages may contribute to the development of prejudice in White children.

Perry is an associate professor of psychology and an Institute for Policy Research faculty fellow at Northwestern University. Her research is situated at the intersection of social, developmental, and health psychology. She investigates how racial bias awareness develops, and the implications of bias awareness for prejudice reduction, intergroup contact, and health disparities. Her work has been published in top journals such as the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Science, and Social Science & Medicine. In 2020, she received the SPSP SAGE Young Scholar Award.

For more information, please visit her website: www.sciplab.com