Faculty

Lisa Chalik

Assistant Teaching Professor  

Office: Billie Tisch Center for Integrated Sciences 390E
Phone: 518-580-5309
Email: lisa.chalik@skidmore.edu

Visit Lisa's lab website

Education:

• Ph.D., New York University, 2016
• M.A., New York University, 2014
• B.A., Rutgers University, 2009

Courses Taught:

• PS 218     Cognition
• PS 206    Developmental Psychology
• PS 312     Moral Psychology
• PS 312     Development of Intergroup Cognition

Research interests:

My research focuses on the abstract theories that children build and rely upon as they navigate the social world. I explore how children learn to organize the people around them into social categories, and how they make inferences about people on the basis of social category membership. I also study the implications of social categorization for moral evaluation.

Selected publications:

• Chalik, L. (2026). The developmental trajectory of social judgment: Understanding others in the context of groups. In J. Landy (Ed.), Research Handbook on Social Judgment (pp. 13-28). Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Chalik, L., & Dunham, Y. (2025). Children’s understanding of abstract and real-world social groups. Developmental Psychology, 61, 1809-1824.
• Chalik, L., & Wynn, K. (2023). Ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity jointly motivate toddlers’ social behavior. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 184, 163-177.
• Chalik, L., Over, H., & Dunham, Y. (2022). Preschool children weigh accuracy against partisanship when seeking information. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 220, 105423.
• Chalik, L. & Rhodes, M. (2022). The development of moral circles. In M. Killen & J. Smetana (Eds.), The Handbook of Moral Development, 3rd edition (pp. 54-68). Routledge.
• Chalik, L., Misch, A., & Dunham, Y. (2022). Social cognitive development: The intergroup context. In O. Houde & G. Borst (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Development (pp. 481-499). Cambridge University Press.
• Chalik, L., & Dunham, Y. (2020). Beliefs about moral obligation structure children’s social category-based expectations. Child Development, 91, e108-e119.
• Chalik, L. & Rhodes, M. (2020). Groups as moral boundaries: A developmental perspective. In J. Benson (Ed.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, Volume 58 (pp. 63-93). Elsevier.
• Chalik, L., & Rhodes, M. (2018). Learning about social category-based obligations. Cognitive Development, 48, 117-124.
• Chalik, L., Leslie, S.J., & Rhodes, M. (2017). Cultural context shapes essentialist beliefs about religion. Developmental Psychology, 53, 1178-1187.
• Chalik, L., & Rhodes, M. (2015). The communication of naïve theories of the social world in parent-child conversation. Journal of Cognition and Development, 16, 719-741.
• Rhodes, M., & Chalik, L. (2013). Social categories as markers of intrinsic interpersonal obligations. Psychological Science, 24, 999-1006.

Fun fact:

I am an obsessive baker and used to write a food blog!