Lawrence Hirschfeld
Professor of Anthropology and Psychology (CSD)
Email
lawrence.hirschfeld@newschool.edu
Office Location
G - 80 Fifth Avenue
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Profile
Lawrence Hirschfeld is Professor of Anthropology and Psychology at the New School for Social Research.
My research explores the psychological aspects of cultural life and the cultural dimension of mental life. I am especially interested in how young children come to understand and use social categories like race, gender, age, etc., particularly how children’s culture shapes the meaning of these categories for both the child and the adult. More recently, I have launched an infant-study lab that focuses on preverbal infants' expectations about social groups and social group dynamic. To date three sets of studies have been completed and are in the process of being prepared for submission.
Hirschfeld Infant Lab
Center for Research with Infants and Toddlers
Degrees Held
PhD 1984, Columbia University
Recent Publications
Books
R. Viale, D. Andler, L. Hirschfeld, Biological and Cultural Bases of Human Inference. Lawrence Erlbaum Publ., 2006.
L. Hirschfeld, Race in the making: Cognition, culture and the child's construction of human kinds. M.I.T. Press. 1996.
L. Hirschfeld & S. Gelman (eds.), Mapping the mind: Domain Specificity in Cognition and Culture. Cambridge University Press. 1994. Translated in Spanish: Cartografia de la mente: La especificidad de dominio en la cognicion y en la cultura. Barcelona: Gedisa. 2002
Articles
"Collections, collectives, and individuals: Preschoolers’ attributions of intentionality." (Sheikh, H.). Cognition, 190, 99-104. (2019)
"The Rutherford Atom of Culture". Journal of Cognition and Culture, 18(3-4), 231-261. (2018)
"The myth of mentalizing and primacy of folk sociology." In M. R. Banaji & S. A. Gelman (eds.) Navigating the Social World: What infants, children, and other species can teach us. Oxford University Press. Pp. 101-106. (2013)
"Seven myths of race and the young child." Du Bois Review 9 (1): 17-39 (2012).
“Children’s developing conceptions of race” in The Handbook of Race, Racism, and the Developing Child, eds. C. McKown & S. Quintana (2008)
“Can autistic children predict behavior by social stereotypes?” (with E. Bartmess, S. White & U. Frith), Current Biology (2007)
“Folksociology and the cognitive foundations of culture” Intellectica (2007)
“Culture, categorization and reasoning” (with D. Medin, S. Unsworth), in Handbook of Cultural Psychology, eds. Shinobu Kityama & Dov Cohen (2007)
"Culture and modularity" (with Dan Sperber), In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.), The Innate Mind. Volume 2: Culture and Cognition. New York: Oxford U. Press. Pp.149-164. (2006)
Biological and Cultural Bases of Human Inference (with R. Viale & D. Andler) (2006).
"The cognitive foundations of cultural stability and diversity" (with Dan Sperber), Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 (1), 42-46. (2004)
Media
Research cited in "How White Families Can Start to Reverse Racism," OZY (June 16, 2020)
Research cited in "If You Think Your Kids (or Babies!) Are Too Young to Talk About Race, Here's Proof They Already Do," PopSugar (June 14, 2020)
Current Courses
Ind Senior Project
LANT 4990, Spring 2025
Independent Study
LPSY 3950, Spring 2025
Independent Study
LANT 3950, Spring 2025
Independent Study
GANT 6990, Spring 2025
Independent Study
GPSY 6990, Spring 2025
Senior Work Project
LPSY 4001, Spring 2025
Future Courses
Ind Senior Project
LANT 4990, Fall 2025
Independent Study
LANT 3950, Fall 2025
Independent Study
LPSY 3950, Fall 2025
Independent Study
GANT 6990, Fall 2025
Independent Study
GPSY 6990, Fall 2025
Natural History of the Mind
GANT 6112, Fall 2025
Natural History of the Mind
GPSY 6355, Fall 2025
Senior Work Project
LPSY 4001, Fall 2025
Past Courses
Evolution, Culture & the Mind
LANT 3201, Fall 2024
Ind Senior Project
LANT 4990, Fall 2024
Independent Study
LPSY 3950, Fall 2024
Independent Study
LANT 3950, Fall 2024
Independent Study
GPSY 6990, Fall 2024
Independent Study
GANT 6990, Fall 2024
Senior Work Project
LPSY 4001, Fall 2024
Theories of Mind & Society
GANT 6110, Fall 2024
Theories of Mind & Society
GPSY 6433, Fall 2024