Children's communication of the Linguistic Intergroup Bias and its impact upon cognitive inferences

Abstract

The hypotheses that children use language strategically (e.g. as in the Linguistic Intergroup Bias) and with increasing strength with age were supported in an experiment with participants ranging in age from 8 to 19 years. In a second experiment, the impact of biased language use on participants' inferences was examined in a sample ranging in age from 5 to 11 years. It was shown for all age groups that participants' inferences were systematically in¯uenced by the abstractness or concreteness of a message. The implications of these ®ndings for the communication and transmission of stereotypes at an early age are discussed.

Word order and world order: Titles of intergroup conflicts may increase ethnocentrism by mentioning the in-group first.

“…Our findings are therefore highly consistent with the notion that undesirable intergroup phenomena in society, such as ethnocentrism, in-group favoritism, but also androcentrism, racism, or sexism, tend to reinforce themselves in language (e.g., Arcuri et al, 1993; Hegarty et al, in press; Maass et al, 1989; Rubini & Semin, 1994; Schmid, 1999; Werkman et al, 1999; Wigboldus, Semin, & Spears, 2000). In line with the Linguistic Category Model (LMC; Fiedler & Semin, 1988) our findings therefore show that language and cognition affect each other (see also Fiedler, 2008).…”

“…sexism, tend to reinforce themselves in language (e.g., Arcuri et al, 1993;Hegarty et al, in press;Maass et al, 1989;Rubini & Semin, 1994;Schmid, 1999;Werkman et al, 1999;Wigboldus, Semin, & Spears, 2000). In line with the Linguistic Category Model (LMC; Fiedler & Semin, 1988) our findings therefore show that language and cognition affect each other (see also Fiedler, 2008).…”

Evidence of Linguistic Intergroup Bias in U.S. Print News Coverage of Immigration

“…The LIB has been shown to emerge in a wide range of intergroup settings using a wide array of methods, including cued sentence completion, multiple-choice procedures, free verbalization, and content analysis (for an overview, see Maass, 1999). Moreover, language biases consistent with the LIB have been observed in children as young as 8 years and LIB-consistent interpretations have been demonstrated in children as young as 5 years (Werkman, Wigboldus, & Semin, 1999).…”

Does the Linguistic Expectancy Bias Extend to a Second Language?

“…Although more abstract descriptions lead to generalizations across situations about the targets of such messages, concrete messages refer to the here and now of a behavior and suggest that the behavior in question is situated. This systematic difference in abstraction has been consistently replicated across different languages such as Italian (e.g., Maass et al, 1989), Dutch (e.g., Werkman et al, 1999), Japanese (e.g., Tanabe & Oka, 2001), or French (e.g., Assilaméhou & Testé, 2013), and successfully applied to the study of stereotypes and intergroup relations (e.g., Gorham, 2006; Maass, 1999; Maass & Arcuri, 1996; Maass et al, 1996, 1998; Rubini & Semin, 1994).…”