Childhood Experiences and Intergroup Biases among Children

Abstract

Children show signs of intergroup biases from early in development, and evidence suggests that these biases increase through middle childhood. Here we critically review and synthesize the literature on the different types of childhood experiences that have been associated with increases or decreases in childhood intergroup bias. Based on the review, one type of childhood experience stands out as being reliably associated with increased intergroup bias over multiple studies-specific overt messages communicating intergroup conflict with, or negativity from, other groups. Three types of childhood experiences were found to be reliably associated with reduced intergroup bias: (a) structured intergroup contact, (b) explicit education about prejudice, and (c) imagined contact with members of other groups. We highlight the social and policy implications of this work and delineate specific experiences and interventions that might be helpful in ameliorating childhood intergroup biases. We also highlight developmental issues concerning the ways that interventions need to vary to be maximally effective at different ages. Finally, recommendations are offered on key factors to incorporate in childhood intergroup bias interventions, as well as what to avoid when attempting to design such programs due to negative (unintended) consequences. This review attempts to

Bias awareness predicts color conscious racial socialization methods among White parents

“…One limitation of the current study is that we did not assess the quality of (parents' or children') contact (e.g., the nature and closeness of their interracial friendships). Although our primary measures of intergroup contact (i.e., number of Black friends, frequency of contact) are consistent with previous work that has assessed intergroup contact as a covariate (e.g., Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998), we recognize that much research on intergroup contact suggests that the quality of the contact is also important to consider (Cameron, Rutland, Hossain, & Petley, 2011;Gaither & Sommers, 2013;Skinner, & Meltzoff, 2019). Moreover, given that people's self-reports about their explicit negative attitudes toward various social groups are influenced by social desirability concerns, it is possible that more indirect, or implicit, measures may tell a different story about the relation between racial attitudes and socialization (Greenwald et al, 1998).…”

“…Prior work has shown little evidence of overlap between the racial attitudes of parents and their children, which has been speculated to be a result of the lack of explicit conversations about race in most White families (Skinner & Meltzoff, 2019;Vittrup, 2018). Thus, although parents in the current study reported fairly positive attitudes toward Black people, their children may have little knowledge of their parents' attitudes in the absence of explicit conversations about race.…”

Imagining contact reduces prejudice in preschool children

“…Prejudice interventions in children have shown to be particularly effective when including intergroup contact (Allport, ) or education and anti‐bias communication (Bigler & Liben, ), although effects can vary according to age and target outgroup (for reviews see Aboud et al, ; Raabe & Beelmann, ; Skinner & Meltzoff, ; Ülger et al, ). In line with the social‐cognitive developmental perspective on prejudice (Rutland et al, ), these interventions with a focus on changing children’s context in turn influence emotional and cognitive processes (e.g., higher empathy, fewer stereotypes) (Aboud et al, ) to counteract the development of prejudice.…”

“…The social‐cognitive developmental perspective on prejudice (Rutland, Killen, & Abrams, ) argues that prejudice develops from a complex interplay between socio‐cognitive (i.e., morality) and socio‐contextual (i.e., group processes) factors. Prejudice‐interventions in children based on intergroup contact theory (Allport, ) have been shown to be particularly effective (Aboud et al, ; Raabe & Beelmann, ; Skinner & Meltzoff, ; Ülger, Dette‐Hagenmeyer, Reichle, & Gaertner, ). However, as very young children have less control over their social environments and therefore may have little opportunities to seek direct outgroup contact, more indirect intergroup contact forms such as mentally simulating positive outgroup contact (imagined contact, Crisp & Turner, ) may be more effective in tackling prejudice in early childhood.…”

What children want to know about in‐ and out‐groups, and how knowledge affects their intergroup attitudes

“…The general idea is that by familiarizing people from diverse groups to each other, they would come to realize that: (a) out‐groups are not composed of homogeneous members all sharing some deep essential features, but rather are composed of unique individuals as diverse as in‐groups, and (b) out‐group members are not that different from in‐group members, often times sharing the same interests, values, and habits. And indeed, intergroup contact has proven fairly effective among adults (see Hodson, Crisp, Meleady, & Earle, ; Pettigrew & Tropp, , for reviews), and children (see Beelmann & Heinemann, ; Skinner & Meltzoff, , for reviews). For instance, studies in the United States and the U.K. have shown that cross‐race friendships or racially heterogeneous kindergartens and schools, have positive effects on children's racial attitudes and stereotypes (Feddes, Noack, & Rutland, ; McGlothlin, Edmonds, & Killen, ; Ruck, Park, Crystal, & Killen, ; Rutland, Cameron, Bennett, & Ferrell, ; Tropp & Prenovost, ), and Jewish and Arab Israeli children attending integrated schools become less essentialists about ethnic differences than their age‐mates attending segregated schools (Deeb, Segall, Ben‐Eliyahu, & Diesendruck, ).…”