Research
My research focuses on the following topics within social cognitive development: gender diversity in childhood, prosocial behavior, understanding status and inequality, prejudice and discrimination.
- December 17, 2019 This Seattle Times story features Kristina Olson, Selin Gülgöz and the latest findings from the TransYouth Project.
- November 20, 2019 UW News recently reported about more findings on gender identity from Kristina Olson’s Trans Youth Project.
- September 12, 2019 Kristina Olson and her work is featured in a recent Seattle Times Pacific Northwest magazine article.
- February 7, 2019 This Atlantic article covers study by Kristina Olson about gender non-conforming kids and their own sense of identity.
- January 23, 2019 Kristina Olson published a story on the development of transgender children in Scientific American.
- December 5, 2018 Kristina Olson and her Trans Youth Project are the subjects of this Seattle Met article.
- November 1, 2018 Kristina Olson has been chosen by Seattle Magazine as one of Seattle’s Most Influential People in 2018
- October 12, 2018 Congratulations to Kristina Olson, who has been selected as a 2018 MacArthur Fellow!
- July 6, 2018 Kristina Olson’s Trans Youth Project is cited in this Atlantic article "When Children Say They're Trans."
- June 13, 2018 Congratulations to Arianne Eason (PhD, Psychology, 2018), who is featured in this Art & Sciences Perspectives Newsletter article.
- May 4, 2018 Kristina Olson discusses the inspiration that led to her research on transgender children in this Seattle Times article
- April 16, 2018 Kristina Olson wins NSF Waterman Award, becomes the first UW faculty member to receive the award in its history. Congratulations, Kristina!
- April 13, 2018 Congratulations to Lily Durwood, who works with Kate McLaughlin and Kristina Olson, for winning a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
- January 19, 2018 Kristina Olson was quoted in this KQED Science article on gender nonconforming youth.
- January 9, 2018 Congratulations to Kristina Olson, who received a renewal award from the Arcus Foundation for her Trans Youth Project.
- December 18, 2017 Kristina Olson’s Trans Youth Project is cited in this Bustle article about Canadian transgender teenagers avoiding health care.
- December 12, 2017 The Brown Daily Herald highlighted Kristina Olson’s recent Michael S. Goodman ’74 Memorial Lecture Series talk, When Sex and Gender Collide: Early Childhood Gender Diversity
- October 25, 2017 Congratulations to Kristina Olson, who just received a sizeable, 5 year grant from the National Institutes of Health for her work titled Views of Gender in Early Childhood.
- September 22, 2017 Congratulations to Anne Fast, mentored by Kristina Olson, who just won the 2017 APF/COGDOP Graduate Research Scholarship.
- August 31, 2017 Congratulations to Kristina Olson for recently received grants and gifts!
- June 7, 2017 Congratulations to Anne Fast, who is mentored by Kristina Olson, who just won the Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship.
- February 1, 2017 Kristina Olson’s study, Trans Youth Project, will be featured in the documentary "Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric," airing February 6 on the National Geographic channel. She is also quoted in a recent New York Times Article about the study.
- January 19, 2017 Kristina Olson and Cheryl Kaiser were both recognized as Fellows of the Association for Psychological Science.
- January 2, 2017 Kristina Olson’s study, Trans Youth Project, will be featured in the documentary "Gender Revolution: A Journey With Katie Couric," airing February 6 on the National Geographic channel. She is also quoted in a recent New York Times Article about the study.
- September 12, 2016 Congratulations to James Rae, who is advised by Kristina Olson, who just received the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) Student Publication Award for his paper: Exposure to Racial Out-Groups and Implicit Race Bias in the United States.
- March 16, 2016 Congratulations to Kristina Olson who was recognized by APS with the 2016 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformational Early Career Contributions!
- March 2, 2016 Kristin Olson and Katie McLaughlin’s study on the mental health of transgender children has been published in the journal Pediatrics and has received wide spread media coverage in UW Today, the Seattle Times, the Guardian, and the Associated Press, to name a few.
- June 5, 2015 Kristina Olson's exciting new research on transgender and gender non-conforming youth was featured on a recent PBS NewsHour "Is gender identity biologically determined?"
- April 17, 2015 Kristina Olson and the TransYouth Project are featured in the latest issue of Arts & Sciences Perspectives newsletter
- April 10, 2015 Kristina Olson's work is helping families find the answers they need.
- April 6, 2015 Kristina Olson is helping parents support their children to be their truest self
- April 2, 2015 Here is an article from The Daily about Kristina Olson’s research on gender cognition in transgender children and how it disproves older claims about kids outgrowing their "gender confusion."
- February 11, 2015 Kristina Olson’s article in Pyschological Science continues to make news.
- February 4, 2015 Kristina Olson and Steve Buck were awarded Royalty Research Fund grants in the latest round.
- February 4, 2015 Kristina Olson has begun a landmark study to document the experience of transgender children.
- September 22, 2014 Congratulations to Assistant Professor Kristina Olson, who will receive the prestigious 2015 Early Career Award from ISCON (International Social Cognition Network).
- March 26, 2014 Kristina Olson and colleagues from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania recently did a study that discovered how preschoolers from different countries often don't view the stealing of ideas as negative.
- March 19, 2014 Karalyn Holten and Sarah Colombo, both juniors in Kristina Olson’s lab, just won Mary Gates Fellowships.
- October 16, 2013 The Foundation for Personality and Social Psychology just announced that Kristina Olson was selected to be one of this year’s honorees for the Sage Young Scholar Award.