Preadolescents' categorization of gender and ethnicity at the subgroup level in memory

Abstract

The statement matching paradigm was used to examine how 10‐ to 13‐year‐olds categorized adults when both ethnicity and gender varied across targets. Forty‐seven children watched a PowerPoint presentation of a conversation involving two Black men, two Black women, two White men and two White women. Each slide displayed the speaker's picture, name and the statement made. The children then were asked to determine who made each statement. The pattern of errors in their assignments was examined to assess how they spontaneously categorized the adults. More within‐ethnicity within‐gender errors (e.g. assigning a statement made by a White woman to the other White woman) were made than any other type of error. This implies that the targets were categorized at the subgroup level. In contrast to findings for adults, the children did not also categorize at the more global level of gender above and beyond the subgroup categorization.

The Politics of Race and Gender: Children's Perceptions of Discrimination and the U.S. Presidency

“…Some children shared their source of knowledge, indicating that they had learned about the race or gender of the presidents via books, posters, dictionaries, encyclopedias, rulers, parents, television, and currency. “Have you seen the money?” one observant girl asked, “Only boy pictures are on the money.” These data are consistent with other work indicating that children attend to the race and gender of individuals (Susskind, 2007) and are aware of status differences related to race and gender early in development (Liben et al, 2001). Based on Brown and Bigler's (2005) model of children's perceptions of discrimination, we expected that children who are members of groups that have been excluded from the role of the president would be especially knowledgeable about the race and gender of U.S. presidents.…”

“…Nonetheless, children might acquire such knowledge through observation and constructive processes. Previous work (Bigler & Liben, 2006, 2007; Susskind, 2007) suggests that children routinely attend to race and gender because these characteristics are (1) readily perceptually discriminable, (2) frequently labeled (especially true of gender, e.g., “Good morning, boys and girls.”), and (3) the bases of the sorting of individuals in the culture (especially true of race, e.g., residential segregation). Thus, we predicted that even young children would be knowledgeable about the links among gender, race, and the U.S. presidency.…”

Constituents of political cognition: Race, party politics, and the alliance detection system

“…It also, like race, appeared to be a default dimension of person perception and categorization in previous research (Beauvais & Spence, 1987;Cabecinhas & Amâncio, 1999;Frable & Bem, 1985;Jackson & Hymes, 1985;Miller, 1986;Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1993;Sani, Bennett, & Soutar, 2005;Stangor et al, 1992;Susskind, 2007;Taylor et al, 1978;Taylor & Falcone, 1982;Van Twyver & Van Knippenberg, 1998). Unlike race, however, sex is biologically real, has been present since the advent of sexual reproduction, and organizes behavior in all known primate societies, including all human societies (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999;Smuts et al, 1987;Sugiyama, 2005).…”

“…This conclusion was based on decades of unsuccessful attempts to inhibit or reduce people's implicit categorization of others by race. These included: priming race, priming a dimension that cross-cuts race, manipulating contextual relevance (i.e., showing people discussing race relations or some other topic), and explicit instructions to either attend or not attend to race (e.g., Bennett & Sani, 2003;Hewstone, Hantzi, & Johnson, 1991;Stangor, Lynch, Duan, & Glass, 1992;Susskind, 2007;Taylor, Fiske, Etcoff, & Ruderman, 1978).…”

Witnesses to History: Children's Views of Race and the 2008 United States Presidential Election

“…First, children routinely attend to race because it is perceptually discriminable and serves as a basis for the sorting of individuals in the culture (e.g., via de facto segregation; Bigler & Liben, 2006). Second, children are aware of race as a social category and can understand and apply racial labels in early childhood (Aboud, 1988;Susskind, 2007). Thus, we expected our elementaryschool-aged participants to identify correctly the racial group memberships of both Obama and McCain.…”