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About

Susan A. Gelman is a distinguished developmental psychologist whose research illuminates how children construct categories and understand the world around them. Her key contributions center on children’s ontological reasoning—how they distinguish living from nonliving kinds, and how they conceptualize novel entities like robots. In her highly cited work "Robots and Rodents" (177 citations), Gelman demonstrated that even young children make nuanced inferences about biological, psychological, and perceptual properties based on cues like aliveness, face, and behavior. More recently, she has pioneered research on children’s understanding of digital privacy, as in her 2021 qualitative study (43 citations) showing how children as young as four conceptualize data processing and privacy risks. Gelman’s work also explores how parent-child conversations shape these developing concepts, as seen in her studies on discussions about robotic dogs and ontological categories. Her research has profound implications for education, child development, and human-computer interaction. A University of Michigan Distinguished Professor, Gelman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received numerous awards for her groundbreaking contributions to cognitive development.