Preference for high status predicts implicit outgroup bias among children from low-status groups.

Abstract

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.

Beyond Discrete Categories: Studying Multiracial, Intersex, and Transgender Children Will Strengthen Basic Developmental Science

“…Even in countries with large multiracial populations, such that dichotomous conceptions of race seem inadequate, the tendency to impose discrete categories frequently still emerges through the addition of a third discrete category term that encompasses multiracial individuals, such as "Coloured" in South Africa (Dunham, Newheiser, et al, 2014;Newheiser, Dunham, Merrill, Hoosain, & Olson, 2013) and "Pardo" in Brazil (Telles, 2002). We suspect that many of the problematic aspects of dichotomous categories will also appear in these cases.…”

An Implicit Stereotype of the Rich and Its Relation to Psychological Connectedness

“…More importantly, however, what has been demonstrated to date is that such a positive impression of ordinary people (regarding the rich) is based mainly on the features of the social success and personal development of exemplars. Both of these features are seen to define social competence (Christopher & Jones, 2004;Horwitz, Shutts, & Olson, 2014;Newheiser, Dunham, Merrill, Hoosain, & Olson, 2014). In this manner, the rich are generally perceived as being similar to each other in terms of social competence.…”

A Social Psychologist's Guide to the Development of Racial Attitudes

“…() are particularly striking as they compare children from a relatively diverse North American city and a relatively homogenous and rural Japanese village, and both show a near‐identical developmental trajectory. Children from low‐status groups, in contrast, show no evidence of ingroup bias on the IAT, including American Black and Hispanic children (Dunham, Baron, & Banaji, ; Newheiser & Olson, ), and Black and Coloured children in South Africa who actually show an implicit outgroup preference for high‐status Whites (Newheiser, Dunham, Merrill, Hoosain, & Olson, under review).…”

“…Additionally, Newheiser and Olson () found that explicit preference for rich people predicted Black American children's implicit bias favoring Whites over Blacks, and Newheiser et al . (under review) found that Black and Coloured children with a higher explicit preference for rich people showed a greater implicit bias favoring White over Coloureds. These findings seem to suggest that young children might use wealth as a cue to group status, an interesting possibility that future research should seek to clarify.…”