Sylvia Perry
Associate Professor of Psychology
PhD, Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2010
Psychologist Sylvia Perry’s 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. Specifically, her work answers questions such as (1) To what extent do norms around admitting and discussing racism contribute to anti-racism? (2) How does White parental racial socialization shape the development of their children’s attitudes and behaviors toward Black individuals? and (3) How do educational environments shape medical trainees’ perceptions of stigmatized individuals? Perry is the principal investigator of the Social Cognition and Intergroup Processes (SCIP) Lab.
In 2022–23, Perry was on leave at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University, where she was the SAGE Sara Miller McCune Fellow. She is a Research Affiliate at CASBS, co-directing the Summer Institute on Diversity. Perry has received funding from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Her research has been published in Psychological Science, Developmental Psychology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Social Science and Medicine, and Annual Review of Psychology.
Additionally, Perry has earned several awards for her teaching and research, including the best paper by the Association for Medical Education in Europe, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s SAGE Young Scholar Award, and the Ann L Brown Award for Excellence in Developmental Research. Many national media outlets, including The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and NPR, have reported on her findings. Perry is an incoming Associate Editor for Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and Social Psychology and Personality Compass, and she serves on the editorial board of Social Psychological and Personality Science. She is a reviewer for the National Science Foundation and the Russell Sage Foundation. Perry is an elected fellow of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Society for Experimental Social Psychology, and the Association for Psychological Science.
Current Research
Bias Awareness. Perry and her colleagues in the Social Cognition and Intergroup Processes (SCIP) Lab developed a measure of bias awareness to assess individual differences in people’s awareness and concern about their own prejudices and the social consequences of this awareness. Currently, she and the SCIP Lab are studying how bias awareness develops and how this awareness affects intergroup attitudes and behavior. Perry finds that White individuals who are more aware of and concerned about their own biases are more receptive to feedback about their biases and more comfortable addressing and discussing racism compared to those with lower bias awareness. These findings have implications for developing interventions that promote bias awareness to foster more open discussions about racism and improve intergroup relations.
Parents, Children, and Discussions About Race. Perry examines how parents’ awareness of racial bias influences the way they discuss race and racism with their children. Her research shows that White parents who are more aware of their own biases are more likely to use color conscious language that explicitly addresses racism and racial bias. Through a guided discussion task she and her team developed, Perry shows that when White parents engage their children in color conscious conversations, this socialization may reduce their children's anti-Black implicit biases. Her findings also offer insights for shaping curricula and providing parents with tools to engage in these conversations.
Bias in Medicine. Healthcare provider bias contributes to health inequities in various ways. For example, if a patient with a marginalized identity feels uncomfortable during a doctor's visit, they may be less likely to seek further care. Perry examines the biases held by physicians and medical trainees, demonstrating that medical school environments significantly shape the development of these biases among trainees. These environments can also undermine the psychological well-being, sense of belonging, and self-efficacy of medical trainees of color. Perry’s findings highlight the need for policy reforms in medical education to create more inclusive environments and reduce bias among healthcare providers, ultimately improving patient care and outcomes.
Selected Publications
Perry, S., J. L. Abaied, D. J. Wu, and J. E. Doriscar. Forthcoming. Racial socialization in the United States. Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 76.
Perry, S., D. J. Wu, J. Abaied, A. L. Skinner-Dorkenoo, S. Sanchez, S. F. Waters, and A. Osnaya. 2024. White parents’ racial socialization during a guided discussion predicts declines in White children’s pro-White biases. Developmental Psychology 60: 624–36.
Skinner-Dorkenoo, A., M. George, J. Wages, S. Sánchez, and S. Perry. 2023. A systemic approach to the psychology of racial bias within individuals and society. Nature Reviews Psychology 2(7): 392–406.
Wilton, L., J. Sullivan, A. Albuja, and S. Perry. 2023. Understanding the challenges and opportunities of talking to children about race and racism. Social Issues and Policy Review 18(1): 89–124.
Tiako, M., J. Wages, and S. Perry. 2023. Black medical students’ sense of belonging, residency self-efficacy, and residency goal stability at historically Black vs predominantly White medical schools: A prospective study. Journal of General Internal Medicine 38: 122–4.
Wu, D., S. Sánchez, and S. Perry. 2022. “Will talking about race make my child racist?” Dispelling myths to encourage honest White U.S. parent-child conversations about race and racism. Current Opinion in Psychology 47: 101420.
Abaied, J., S. Perry, A. Cheaito, and V. Ramirez. 2022. Racial socialization messages in White parents’ discussions of current events involving racism. Journal of Research on Adolescence 32(3): 863–82.
Perry, S., A. Skinner-Dorkenoo, J. Abaied, and S. Waters. 2022. Applying the evidence we have: Support for having race conversations in White U.S. Families. Perspectives on Psychological Science 17(3): 895–900.
Wages, J., S. Perry, A. Skinner-Dorkenoo, and G. Bodenhausen. 2022. Reckless gambles and responsible ventures: racialized prototypes of risk-taking. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 122(2): 202–21.
Perry, S., J. Wages, A. Skinner-Dorkenoo, S. Burke, R. Hardeman, and S. Phelan. 2021. Testing a self-affirmation intervention for improving the psychosocial health of Black and White medical students in the United States. Journal of Social Issues 77(3): 769–800.
Abaied, J. and S. Perry. 2021. Socialization of racial ideology by White parents. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology 27(3): 431–40.
Skinner, A., A. Osnaya, B. Patel, and S. Perry. 2020. Mimicking others' nonverbal signals is associated with increased attitude contagion. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, Special Issue on Nonconscious Mimicry 44: 117–31.
Skinner, A. and S. Perry. 2020. Are attitudes contagious? Exposure to biased nonverbal signals can create novel social attitudes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 46(4): 514–24.
Onyeador, I., N. Wittlin, S. Burke, J. Dovidio, S. Perry, R. Hardeman, L. Dyrbye, J. Herrin, S. Phelan, and M. van Ryn. 2020. The value of interracial contact for reducing anti-Black bias among Non-Black physicians: A CHANGE study report. Psychological Science 31(1): 18-30.
Skinner, A., S. Perry, and S. Gaither. 2020. Not quite monoracial: Biracial stereotypes explored. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 46(3): 377–92.
Perry, S., A. Skinner, and J. Abaied. 2019. Bias awareness predicts color conscious racial socialization methods among White parents. Journal of Social Issues 75(4): 1035–56.
