The development of intergroup bias in childhood: How social norms can shape children's racial behaviours

Abstract

T he present research examined the developmental course of racial behaviours in childhood. It tested the hypothesis that White children's expressions of racial prejudice do not necessarily decline in middle childhood due to the development of particular cognitive skills but that instead, as argued by the socio-normative approach, children older than seven will go on expressing prejudiced attitudes under appropriate conditions. This would be explained by the presence of an anti-racism norm, along with the existence of values promoting equal rights, which impede blatant expressions of racism. In the first study 283 White children aged 6-7 and 9-10 years performed a task of resource allocation to White and Black target children in conditions of high (White interviewer was present) or low (White interviewer was absent) salience of the anti-racist norm. The 6-to 7-yearold children discriminated against the Black target in both conditions whereas older children discriminated against the Black child only when the anti-racist norm was not salient. In Study 2, 187 White children aged 6-7 and 9-10 years performed the same resource allocation task in conditions of explicit activation of similarity vs dissimilarity or egalitarian vs merit-based norms regarding race relations. Supporting the hypothesis of the role of racist or anti-racist norms on the expression of intergroup discrimination, results have again shown that 6-to 7-year-old children discriminated against the Black target in both conditions while older children presented significantly different prejudiced/nonprejudiced behaviours consistent with the activated norms. These results were discussed in terms of the need for a reanalysis of the assumptions and research results of the cognitivedevelopmental theory and of further developments in the socio-normative approach regarding the development of prejudice in childhood. L a présente recherche a examiné le cours du développement des comportements raciaux pendant l'enfance. L'étude a testé l'hypothèse que les expressions de préjugés raciaux des enfants blancs ne diminuent pas nécessairement au milieu de l'enfance à cause du développement d'habiletés cognitives particulières mais plutô t, tel qu'avancé par l'approche socio-normative, sous des conditions appropriées, les enfants de plus de 7 ans continueront à exprimer des préjugés. Ceci serait expliqué par la présence d'une norme anti-raciste ainsi que l'existence de valeurs qui promouvoient les droits égaux, ce qui empêche les expressions flagrantes de racisme. Dans la première étude, 283 enfants blancs â gés de 6-7 et de 9-10 ans ont accompli une tâ che d'allocation de ressources à des enfants-cibles blancs et noirs dans des conditions de saillance élevée (un interviewer blanc était présent) ou faible (un interviewer blanc était absent) de la norme anti-raciste. Les enfants de 6-7 ans ont #

Learning to control ethnic intergroup bias in childhood

“…They suggest that both the development of social emotions (e.g., embarrassment) and ToSM in combination with children's awareness of in-group norm moderate how children inhibit their intergroup bias when held accountable to the in-group. Our studies support the notion that children's intergroup bias may decline due to children's increasing ability to control their bias when made publically accountable to the in-group (e.g., Abrams et al, 2007;Monteiro et al, 2009;Rutland, 1999Rutland, , 2004Rutland et al, 2005). Moreover they make a novel contribution by showing for the first time amongst children affective and social-cognitive factors that influence how they learn to control their explicit ethnic intergroup bias.…”

Development of in-group favoritism in children’s third-party punishment of selfishness

“…By early childhood, children favor same-race peers (28,33) and share preferentially with in-group members (34,35). Strikingly, children's in-group bias also extends to "minimal groups" (36), or arbitrary social groups created in the laboratory.…”

“…Around age 7, explicit ingroup bias begins to decline on a variety of measures (28,50,51), likely reflecting that children gain exposure to cultural norms against certain forms of bias and discrimination (49,52) and improve their ability to monitor their self-presentation to conform to such norms (53). As a result, older children are most likely to show reduced bias when antidiscrimination norms are salient, and when they are motivated to look good in the eyes of observers (35,49,54).…”

How do young children expect others to address resource inequalities between groups?

“…Thus, the primary difference between expectations for the advantaged and disadvantaged group members related to the impact of expected evaluations of the inequality (okay vs. not okay). In light of recent work indicating that stereotypes about deservedness based on status and group membership impact older children's allocation decisions (e.g., McGillicuddy-De Lisi, Daly, & Neal, 2006;Monteiro, de França, & Rodrigues, 2009), our findings are an indication of how early, and under what conditions, children expect others to exacerbate disparities.…”