The Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab

When the Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab (GARAL) at the University of Texas at Austin opened its doors in 1991, Dr. Rebecca Bigler, a psychologist with a strong interest in the effects of intergroup learning, prejudice and social attitudes among children, was determined that GARAL would not only study and quantify change, but make it.

"The impetus was really my own desire to better understand the factors that cause the formation of gender and racial attitudes among children and how best to prevent and reduce gender and racial biases," says Bigler, the first and only director of the Lab, a part of UT's Children’s Research Laboratory and Department of Psychology.

Sixteen years down the road, Bigler, now also affiliated with the Women's and Gender Studies program, continues to guide her staff to development of important research, curricula, and experimental paradigms. Today, GARAL has four main areas of focus: gender and racial attitudes in children's development; the role of intergroup attitudes and concepts of self; examination of external factors that shape group prejudices, stereotyping, and discrimination; and the mechanisms of gender and racial attitude change. The lab is an important research tool for multicultural educators and scholars and a source of innovative classroom programs for teachers.

Bigler says she has been particularly pleased with the enthusiasm for the lab's mission among both undergrad and grad students who find GARAL a place to explore theories and also practice hands-on application of techniques to affect social justice change in child development.

She also knows that the work has just begun.

"In general, I would say that there is a great deal left to know about how to create diverse, tolerant communities," says Bigler, a much-published author in this field. "Just to give you one example — there is an increasing movement in education to create single-gender schools, and, simultaneously, schools are becoming more racially segregated. I don't think that we know nearly enough about what the consequences of these changes will be."