I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Princeton CoLab (PI: Dr. Natalia Vélez), where I investigate the developmental and computational origins of testimonial injustice in collaborative settings.
I recently completed my Ph.D. at the Conceptual Development and Social Cognition Lab (PI: Dr. Marjorie Rhodes) at New York University. My dissertation focused on the developmental processes that shape gender disparities in STEM, as well as other topics related to social categorization and cognitive development.
Before coming to NYU, I worked as a lab manager at the Social Concepts Lab at Stanford University for two years, working on projects related to children’s and adults’ normative reasoning, concepts of race, and experience of inequality. I received my bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in 2017, with a major in Psychology and a minor in Mathematics.
I have previously also worked at the Culture, Family, & Development Lab at Wellesley, the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT, and the Social Learning Lab at Stanford.
You can find a recent CV here.
Current Research Projects
The Development of Gender Disparities Among Those at the Very Top
In this line of research, I study the socio-psychological processes underlying gender disparities among those who are recognized as the most exceptional. Along with Drs. Marjorie Rhodes and Sarah-Jane Leslie, I show that using public acknowledgment as a form of motivation for top performance (e.g., public praises, titles, awards, ceremonies, etc.) is effective for boosting motivation among boys and men, but not girls and women (and can actually discourage girls from achieving excellence). We research these processes among elementary-age children, adolescents, and adults.
How Subtle Linguistic Cues Shape Early Gender-Science Stereotypes
In this line of work, I study how action-focused science language ("Let’s do science!”) versus identity-focused science language (“Let’s be scientists!”) shape preschool-aged children’s early interest, engagement, and beliefs about science. Along with Amanda Cardarelli and Drs. Marjorie Rhodes and Sarah-Jane Leslie, I examine the science language children encounter in their daily environments (e.g., classrooms, parents, media), as well as the experimental effects of manipulating such language on their own science interest, engagement, and stereotype beliefs about science.
The Computational and Developmental Origins of Testimonial Injustice
Here, I examine structural inequalities in language itself through the framework of testimonial injustice—inequities in whose perspective gets voiced and heard in collaborative contexts. Specifically, by testing children’s and adults’ group decisions under varying conditions of evidence strength and group gender composition, and comparing them to predictions of an ideal observer model, I quantify the extent to which testimonial injustice stems from beliefs about oneself versus beliefs about others and trace its development across childhood.
Publications
Wang, M., Leslie, S. J., & Rhodes, M. (in press). Public acknowledgement as a double-edged sword: Gender differences in how publicity motivates children and youths to achieve top performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/vgtc3
Wang, M., Cardarelli, A., Brenner, J., Leslie, S. J., & Rhodes, M. (2025). Maladaptive but malleable: Gender-science stereotypes emerge early but are modifiable by language. Child Development, 96(2), 865-880. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14213
Xu, Y.*, Wang, M.*, Moty, K., & Rhodes, M. (2025). How culture shapes the early development of essentialist beliefs. Developmental Science, 28(1), e13586. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13586
Wang, M., Gleason, T. R., & Chen, S. H. (2025). Effortful control is associated with ethnic minority children’s pro-wealth biases and explanations across social domains. Developmental Psychology, 61(9), 1707–1720. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001853
Wang, M., & Roberts, S. O. (2023). Children from highly resourced contexts believe most people are highly resourced: An early developing worldview that stymies resource sharing. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 230, 105624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105624
Wang, M., Cardarelli, A., Leslie, S. J., & Rhodes, M. (2022). How children’s media and teachers communicate exclusive and essentialist views of science and scientists. Developmental Psychology, 58(8), 1455–1471. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0001364
Bareket-Shavit, C., Wang, M., & Roberts, S. O. (2021). Harnessing the power of group norms to improve children’s intergroup relationships. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 28(3), 302–309. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000592
Roberts, S. O., Bareket-Shavit, C., & Wang, M. (2021). The souls of Black folk (and the weight of Black ancestry) in U.S. Black Americans’ racial categorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 121(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspa0000228
Van Wye, E., Wang, M., & Roberts, S. O. (2021). Explanations for norm violations affect preschoolers’ judgments of norm violators. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150(8), 1688–1694. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000942
Rhodes, M., Rizzo, M., Foster-Hanson, E., Moty, K., Leshin, R., Wang, M., Benitez, J., & Ocampo, J. D. (2020). Advancing developmental science via unmoderated remote research with children. Journal of Cognition and Development, 21(4), 477-493. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2020.1797751
Roberts, S. O., Weisman, K., Lane, J. D., Williams, A., Camp, N., Wang, M., Robison, M., Sanchez, K., & Griffiths, C. (2020). Conceptualizing God as a White man: A psychological barrier to conceptualizing Black people and women as leadership worthy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(6), 1290–1315. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000233
Chen, S. H., Gleason, T. R., Wang, M., Liu, C. H., & Wang, L. (2019). Subjective social status in Chinese American children: Associations with social cognitions and socioemotional well-being. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 10(4), 362-372. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000161
Carciofo, R., Song, N., Du, F., Wang, M., & Zhang, K. (2017). Metacognitive beliefs mediate the relationship between mind wandering and negative affect. Personality and Individual Differences, 107(1), 78-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.11.033
Conference Proceedings
Wang, M., Xu, Y., Moty, K., & Rhodes, M. (2024). The cognitive precursors of early developing essentialist beliefs. Proceedings of the 46th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 3873-3881). https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qanh6
Contact
mw4054@princeton.edu
Princeton University, Department of Psychology
Peretsman Scully Hall, Room 210
Princeton, NJ 08540