Whereas members of high-status racial groups show ingroup preference when attitudes are measured implicitly, members of low-status racial groups – both adults and children – typically show no bias, potentially reflecting awareness of the ingroup’s low status. We hypothesized that when status differences are especially pronounced, children from low-status groups would show an implicit outgroup bias, the strength of which might relate to attitudes toward status. We tested these predictions among 6–11-year-old Black and Coloured (i.e., multiracial) children from South Africa, a country marked by extreme status differentials among racial groups. As a measure of implicit intergroup bias, children (N=78) completed an Implicit Association Test, a speeded categorization task that assesses the relative strength of association between two target groups (in the present study, either Whites vs. Blacks or Whites vs. Coloureds) and positive versus negative evaluation. Children also completed explicit (i.e., self-report) measures of attitudes toward racial groups, as well as rich and poor people (a measure of attitudes toward status). Both groups of children showed an implicit outgroup-favoring (i.e., pro-White) bias, suggesting that children were sensitive to the extent of status differences. The only instance in which implicit pro-White bias did not emerge involved Black children’s evaluations of Whites versus Coloureds, both higher-status outgroups. Explicit preference for high status predicted implicit pro-White bias, particularly when the IAT contrasted two outgroups. The impact of status on the development of implicit and explicit intergroup bias is discussed.

Social groups are often described as hierarchically ordered in terms of social status. Intergroup research has generally focused on the relationship between the highest-status group and a single lower-status group, leaving relationships among nondominant groups relatively unexplored. Focusing on low-status Black and intermediate-status Coloured (multiracial) South African elementary school-children, we examined the attitudes members of these two groups hold toward one another and toward a range of other locally salient groups, as well as their wealth-related stereotypes and preferences. Results indicated that both Coloured and Black children implicitly preferred Coloured over Black, and also strongly associated Coloured (vs. Black) with wealth, suggesting a powerful tendency to internalize the status quo. However, Black children exhibited stronger preferences for other social groups, as well as stronger preferences for wealth in general, possibly as a means of compensating for their devalued status in the domain of race. Implications for theories of intergroup attitudes are discussed.