Social norms and the expression of prejudice: The development of aversive racism in childhood

Abstract

In Study 1, 82 White children aged 5–10 years allocated rewards to White and Black target children in justified/unjustified normative contexts according to their performance on a previous task. In Study 2, 71 White children aged 5–10 years allocated resources to White and Black target children in conditions of high (interviewer was present) or low (interviewer was absent) salience of the anti‐racism norm. In both studies, younger children displayed intergroup biased racial behaviours in most conditions, whereas older children, as expected, only displayed similar egalitarian behaviours in contexts where an anti‐racism normative pressure was not salient. Results of both experimental studies highlighted the interplay between child development, the anti‐prejudice norm and context factors. Furthermore, they support the assumptions of the theory of aversive racism regarding the use of legitimizing justifications to account for racial biased behaviours and extend its scope to a better understanding of the development of racial prejudice in childhood. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

“Yuck, you disgust me!” Affective bias against interracial couples

“…DISGUST AND DEHUMANIZATION OF INTERRACIAL COUPLES 11 contemporary egalitarian norms prohibit the expression of racial biases (França & Monteiro, 2013), we suspect that not all participants that harbor biases were willing to acknowledge and report them. Nonetheless, Study 1 provided strong support for our initial hypothesis, that disgust is associated with reduced acceptance of interracial romance.…”

Subjective social status and intergroup attitudes among ethnic majority and minority children in Portugal

“…Our findings are also consistent with the socio‐normative theory of prejudice development (e.g., França & Monteiro, ; Monteiro et al ., ; Rutland et al ., ) that from about 8 years onwards, high‐status children show in‐group favouritism only on measures on which it may be normatively acceptable. This was confirmed in regard to White children's evaluations of the Black out‐group.…”

Introjeção de Normas Sociais e Expressão Indireta de Preconceito em Crianças

“…Os resultados confirmam que existe uma relação entre o contexto e a expressão do preconceito. Outros estudos com crianças apontam para os mesmos achados (França & Monteiro, 2003;França & Monteiro, 2013;Silva, 2014). Isso pode estar relacionado com a hipótese de um preconceito sutil, discreto e velado, que surge apenas quando pode-se atribuir uma justificativa para estas ações que não estejam associadas a atos de discriminação ou preconceito (Nunes, 2010).…”

“…Isso sugere que as crianças mais velhas não reduzem incondicionalmente a discriminação, diferentemente do que é proposto pela abordagem cognitiva do desenvolvimento. O preconceito racial é expresso somente em contextos nos quais esse comportamento possa ser justificado por algo que não a pertença racial dos alvos (França & Monteiro, 2013).…”