Xu Lab

*mentored undergraduate and graduate students

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*Maylor, J., & Xu, Y. (in prep). What Shapes Children’s Ecological Decision-Making? A Literature Review. 

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*Dantzler, M. & Xu, Y. (in prep). Gender Essentialism Increases Dispositional Attribution in Romantic Relationships. ​

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​​*Evans, T., & Xu, Y. (in prep). The Weight of Words: Microaggressions, Self-Esteem, and Student Outlooks​.​​

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*DeMott, M., Xu, Y., & Edwards, O. (in prep). Essentialist Beliefs and College Students’ Reading Motivation.

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Xu, Y., Berryessa, M. C., & Coley, J.D. (in prep). Essentialist Beliefs about Crime Predict Retributive Punishment Decisions via Increased Stigma.

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Xu, Y., *Tole, J., Lim, D., Condon, P., & Coley, J.D. (in prep). Mitigating Social Essentialist Beliefs: Domain-Specific Effects in a Brief Mindfulness Intervention.  

 

Xu, Y., *Luken, A., Wen, F., Zuo, B., & Coley, J. D. (ready to submit). Cultural Variation and Clinical Implications of Essentialist Thinking in Mental Health: Comparing US and Chinese Adults.

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Xu, Y., *Manasreh, N., Zhou, Y., *Li, R. (Under Review). Do Large Language Models Essentialize Social Groups? Evidence of Essentialist Responses from GPT-4. 

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Xu, Y, Wen, F., Shi, Y., Wang, G., & Zuo, B. (Under Review). Social Essentialist Beliefs among Chinese Adolescents (9-11th Grade).

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*Rhythy, T.R., Hu, D., & Xu, Y. (in revision). Understanding Vulnerability and Resilience: Socioeconomic and Demographic Influences on Building Damage During Hurricane Katrina.

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Xu, Y., Wang, M., Moty, K., & Rhodes, M. (2025). How Does Culture Shape the Development of Essentialist Beliefs. Developmental Science, 28(1), e13586. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/desc.13586

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Wang, M., Xu, Y., Moty, K., & Rhodes, M. (2024). The Cognitive Precursors of Early Developing Essentialist Beliefs. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qanh6

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*Gui Y., Xu Y., & Rhodes M. (2023). The Intergenerational Transmission of Social Essentialism: How Parent’s Beliefs Influence Children’s Beliefs. Inquiry: A Journal of Undergraduate Research, Volume XXVII, 39. College of Arts and Sciences, New York University.

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Xu, Y. (2023). A Cross-Cultural Examination of Social Essentialism. Chinese Social Psychological Studies, 1, 205-214.

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Xu, Y., Wen, F., Zuo, B., & Rhodes, M. (2023). Social Essentialism in the United States and China: How Social and Cognitive Factors Predict Within- and Cross-Cultural Variances in Essentialist Thinking. Memory & Cognition, 51, 681–694. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-022-01306-1​ 

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Xu, Y., & Coley, J.D. (2022). Intuitive Biology Thinking in Chinese Eighth Graders. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 224. ​https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105511 

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Xu, Y., *Burns, M., Wen, F., Thor, E. D., Zuo, B., Coley, J. D., & Rhodes, M. (2022). How Culture Shapes Social Categorization and Inductive Reasoning: A Developmental Comparison. Journal of Cognition and Development, 23(5), 644-659. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2022.2085708

 

Xu, Y., Berryessa, M. C., *Dowd, M., Penta, D., & Coley, J. D. (2021). Essentialist Bias in Culpability and Punishment Decision-Making. Psychology, Crime, and Law, 28(3), 246-267. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316X.2021.1905812  ​

 

Xu, Y., Li, X., & Coley, J. D. (2021). How Essentialist Beliefs about National Groups Differ by Cultural Origin and Study-Abroad Experience among Chinese and American College Students. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 24(4), 537-552. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12456​

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Wen, F., Ye, H., Wang, Y., Xu, Y., & Zuo, B. (2021). Icing on the cake: “Amplification Effect” of innovative information form in news report about COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychology,12:600523. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.600523 ​

 

Wen, F., Zuo, B., Ma, S., Xu, Y, Coley, J.D., & Wang, Y. (2020). Do We See Masculine Faces as Competent and Feminine Faces as Warm? Effects of Sexual Dimorphism on Facial Perception. Evolutionary Psychology,18(4), 1474704920980642. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474704920980642​

 

Coley, J. D., Feeney, A., Xu, Y., Wen, F., & Zuo, B. (2019). A Two-component Framework Captures Cross-cultural Similarities and Differences in Essentialist Thinking About Social Categories. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jbg4r​

 

Coley, J. D., Arenson, M., Xu, Y., & Tanner, K. (2017). Intuitive Biological Thought: Developmental Changes and Effects of Biology Education in Late Adolescence. Cognitive Psychology, 92, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2016.11.001