About

Steven Othello Roberts is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. His research focuses on the psychological bases of racism and strategies to dismantle them. Roberts has contributed to understanding how race influences social perceptions, conversations about race within families, and the broader societal implications of racial attitudes. His work explores critical issues such as American racism, the conceptualization of race and leadership, and systemic inequalities in psychological research. Roberts has been recognized with several awards, including the Rising Star and Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science in 2021. His scholarly efforts aim to advance knowledge on racial bias, promote anti-racism, and address systemic disparities within psychological science and society.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Political Science
• Gender studies
• Medicine
• Biology
• History
• Demography
• Gerontology
• Law
• Psychiatry
• Geography
• Developmental psychology
• Genetics
• Ecology

Selected publications

• The representation of authors of color in schizophrenia research articles published in high-impact psychiatric journals

  UNC Libraries · 2025-11-19

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• The role of racial group solidarity in intergroup relations between Black-White multiracial and Black monoracial people

  Scientific Reports · 2024-11-18 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Across two studies, we examined intergroup relations between Black-White multiracial and Black monoracial people in the U.S. Study 1 showed that Black-White multiracial participants reported more solidarity with Black than White people, but less solidarity with Black people than Black participants reported. Likewise, their race-relevant political attitudes were somewhat more aligned with Black than White participants, but not completely aligned with Black participants. Reflecting this pattern, Black participants perceived that Black-White multiracial people feel more solidarity with Black than White people, but less solidarity with Black people than they themselves feel. Solidarity perceptions were consequential. Both Study 1 (correlational) and Study 2 (experimental) showed that Black participants' perceptions of Black-White multiracial people's solidarity with Black people were related to their inclusion of multiracial people. Furthermore, contingent on high levels of solidarity with Black people, multiracial people's relationships with White people were less consequential for Black participants' inclusion of them.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reducing racial bias in scientific communication: Journal policies and their influence on reporting racial demographics.

  American Psychologist · 2024-05-01 · 3 citations

  articleSenior author

  Research titles with White samples, compared to research titles with samples of color, have been less likely to include the racial identity of the sample. This unequal writing practice has serious ramifications for both the history and future of psychological science, as it solidifies in the permanent scientific record the false notion that research with White samples is more generalizable and valuable than research with samples of color. In the present research, we experimentally tested the extent to which PhD students (63% White students, 27% students of color) engaged in this unequal writing practice, as well as the extent to which this practice might be disrupted by journal policies. In Study 1, PhD students who read about research conducted with a White sample, compared to those who read about the exact same research conducted with a Black sample, were significantly less likely to mention the sample's racial identity when generating research titles, keywords, and summaries. In Study 2, PhD students instructed to mention the racial identity of their samples, and PhD students instructed to not mention the identity of their samples (though to a lesser extent), were less likely to write about the White versus Black samples unequally. Across both studies, we found that PhD students were overall supportive of a policy to make the racial demographics of samples more transparent, believing that it would help to reduce racial biases in the field. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Dealing With Diversity in Psychology: Science and Ideology

  Perspectives on Psychological Science · 2024-04-23 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In the spirit of America’s Shakespeare, August Wilson (1997), I have written this article as a testimony to the conditions under which I, and too many others, engage in scholarly discourse. I hope to make clear from the beginning that although the ideas presented here are not entirely my own—as they have been inherited from the minority of scholars who dared and managed to bring the most necessary, unpalatable, and unsettling truths about our discipline to the broader scientific community—I do not write for anyone but myself and those scholars who have felt similarly marginalized, oppressed, and silenced. And I write as a race scholar, meaning simply that I believe that race—and racism—affects the sociopolitical conditions in which humans, and scholars, develop their thoughts, feelings, and actions. I believe that it is important for all scholars to have a basic understanding of these conditions, as well as the landmines and pitfalls that define them, as they shape how research is conducted, reviewed, and disseminated. I also believe that to evolve one’s discipline into one that is truly robust and objective, it must first become diverse and self-aware. Any effort to suggest otherwise, no matter how scholarly it might present itself, is intellectually unsound.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Effect of Group Status on Children’s Hierarchy-Reinforcing Beliefs

  2023-03-15 · 2 citations

  preprint

  Members of advantaged groups are more likely than members of disadvantaged groups to think, feel, and behave in ways that reinforce their group’s position within the hierarchy. This study examined how children’s status within a group-based hierarchy shapes their beliefs about the hierarchy and the groups that comprise it in ways that reinforce the hierarchy. To do this, we randomly assigned children (4-8 years; N = 123; 75 female, 48 male; 21 Asian, 9 Black, 21 Latino/a, 1 Middle-Eastern/North-African, 14 Multiracial, 41 White, 16 not-specified) to novel groups that differed in social status (Advantaged, Disadvantaged, Neutral-Third-Party) and assessed their beliefs about the hierarchy. Across five separate assessments, advantaged-group children were more likely to judge the hierarchy to be fair, generalizable, and wrong to challenge and were more likely to hold biased intergroup attitudes and exclude disadvantaged group members. In addition, with age, children in both the advantaged- and disadvantaged- groups became more likely to see membership in their own group as inherited, while at the same time expecting group-relevant behaviors to be determined more by the environment. With age, children also judged the hierarchy to be more unfair and expected the hierarchy to generalize across contexts. These findings provide novel insights into how children’s position within hierarchies can contribute to the formation of hierarchy-reinforcing beliefs.

  PublisherDOI

• Heterogeneity in needs and purchases in Australian retirees

  Accounting and Finance · 2023-12-20 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract To plan for retirement, it is important to understand how needs and purchases may change. We use data from a survey of elderly Australians to see how needs and purchases changed in different categories of goods and services. We looked especially at those who had experienced financial or health shocks. Our analysis shows variation in people's experiences, particularly for health costs, which increase with age. Having private health insurance appears to increase the level and volatility of health costs – presumably as a result of out‐of‐pocket costs. This information can be useful for financial advisors and superannuation trustees.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The effect of group status on children's hierarchy‐reinforcing beliefs

  Developmental Science · 2023-04-13 · 7 citations

  articleOpen access

  Members of advantaged groups are more likely than members of disadvantaged groups to think, feel, and behave in ways that reinforce their group's position within the hierarchy. This study examined how children's status within a group-based hierarchy shapes their beliefs about the hierarchy and the groups that comprise it in ways that reinforce the hierarchy. To do this, we randomly assigned children (4-8 years; N = 123; 75 female, 48 male; 21 Asian, 9 Black, 21 Latino/a, 1 Middle-Eastern/North-African, 14 multiracial, 41 White, 16 not-specified) to novel groups that differed in social status (advantaged, disadvantaged, neutral third-party) and assessed their beliefs about the hierarchy. Across five separate assessments, advantaged-group children were more likely to judge the hierarchy to be fair, generalizable, and wrong to challenge and were more likely to hold biased intergroup attitudes and exclude disadvantaged group members. In addition, with age, children in both the advantaged- and disadvantaged-groups became more likely to see membership in their own group as inherited, while at the same time expecting group-relevant behaviors to be determined more by the environment. With age, children also judged the hierarchy to be more unfair and expected the hierarchy to generalize across contexts. These findings provide novel insights into how children's position within hierarchies can contribute to the formation of hierarchy-reinforcing beliefs. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: A total of 123 4-8-year-olds were assigned to advantaged, disadvantaged, and third-party groups within a hierarchy and were assessed on seven hierarchy-reinforcing beliefs about the hierarchy. Advantaged children were more likely to say the hierarchy was fair, generalizable, and wrong to challenge and to hold intergroup biases favoring advantaged group members. With age, advantaged- and disadvantaged-group children held more essentialist beliefs about membership in their own group, but not the behaviors associated with their group. Results suggest that advantaged group status can shape how children perceive and respond to the hierarchies they are embedded within.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Condemned or Valued: Young Children Evaluate Nonconformity Based on Nonconformists' Group Orientations

  2023-11-06

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Nonconformity––the act of deviating from established norms and expectations of one’s group––is often evaluated negatively, despite its potential benefits for society. Three preregistered studies (N = 153) examined how nonconformists’ group orientations (attitudes and intentions toward ingroup and outgroups) might affect 4-6-year-olds’ evaluations of nonconformity in intergroup situations. Study 1 examined children’s default beliefs of nonconformists’ group attitudes toward ingroup and outgroup. We found that children expected nonconformists to hold more positive attitudes toward their outgroup than toward their ingroup, and this expectation predicted their disapproval of nonconformity. In Study 2, however, when nonconformity was explicitly motivated by positive intentions toward the ingroup rather than toward the outgroup, children were more accepting of nonconformity. Study 3 found that among nonconformists with different types of group orientations (positive toward the outgroup, ingroup or both group), young children evaluated the most positively nonconformists who bring the ingroup and the outgroup together. Collectively, these findings suggest that children evaluate nonconformity based on nonconformists’ group orientations, illuminating one mechanism for how nonconformity could be more socially accepted and valued.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Condemned or Valued: Young Children Evaluate Nonconformity Based on Nonconformists’ Group Attitudes

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Romantic racism: How racial preferences (and beliefs about racial preferences) reinforce hierarchy in U.S. interracial relationships.

  Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology · 2023-05-18 · 13 citations

  articleSenior author

  OBJECTIVES: In the United States, the two most common interracial marriages are between Asian women and White men, and between Black men and White women. Previous research proposed that the reason for these pairings stems from White Americans' racial preferences, such that White men prefer Asian women over Black women (i.e., the group stereotyped as more feminine), whereas White women prefer Black men over Asian men (i.e., the group stereotyped as more masculine). Here, we argue that focusing solely on White Americans' preferences neglects the reality that Americans of color also have preferences (and beliefs about others' preferences) that contribute to the composition of U.S. interracial relationships. METHOD: We used multiple methodologies (i.e., surveys and experimental manipulations) to examine Asian, Black, and White Americans beliefs about others' preferences. RESULTS: = 3,728), we reveal that Asian, Black, and White Americans have beliefs about others' preferences (Study 1), that those beliefs mirror their own preferences (Study 2), and that those beliefs have causal implications for their own preferences (Study 3). CONCLUSION: Collectively, these findings reveal that such beliefs (and preferences) advantage White Americans, such that both Asian and Black Americans believe that they are more attractive to White Americans than to each other, which leads them to be more attracted to White Americans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Susan A. Gelman

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  32 shared

• Arnold K. Ho

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  13 shared

• Michelle Wang

  Wellesley College

  6 shared

• Marjorie Rhodes

  New York University

  6 shared

• Rose K. Vukovic

  5 shared

• Carmelle Bareket-Shavit

  University of British Columbia

  4 shared

• Phong T. H. Ngo

  4 shared

• Fan Yang

  University of Chicago

  4 shared

Education

• B.A., Liberal Arts

  Borough of Manhattan Community College

  2009

• B.S., Applied Psychology

  New York University

  2012

• M.S., Psychology

  University of Michigan

  2014

• Ph.D., Psychology

  University of Michigan

  2017

Awards & honors

• Rising Star, Association for Psychological Science (2021)
• Sage Young Scholar Award, Society for Personality and Social…
• Mission Award for Meta-Science, Society for the Improvement…
• Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Co…