Infants’ Intergroup Bias in Individuation

• In Event: 1-032 - Infants’ capacity to individuate people

Integrative Statement

Numerous studies have demonstrated a preference among young children, and perhaps even infants, for people who are similar to them (in-group members) as opposed to those different from them (out-group members). A fundamental distinct conceptualization that may give rise to these biases is that whereas in-groups members are construed as unique individuals, out-group members are construed as homogeneous category exemplars. In the present study we ask whether such conceptual bias is present in 1-year-old infants.

We adopted a paradigm used to demonstrate 1-year-olds' capacity to individuate inanimate objects. 51 participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions, resulting from the crossing of two factors: Target group (In-group/Out-group) and Number of targets (same/different). The procedure consisted of four phases (see Figure 1), all but the first conducted in front of an eye-tracker. In the first phase, infants were given a choice between two types of foods and two colors of bibs. Next, infants watched two actresses who manifested either the same preferences as the infant (In-group condition) or the opposite preferences (Out-group condition). Then, in the Hiding Phase, infants watched as either one (Same condition) or two (Different condition) new actresses appeared, one at a time, and dressed either in the colors of the in- or the out-group, from behind a curtain. Finally, in the Test Phase, the curtain opened to reveal only one of the actresses. We hypothesized that if infants are biased to individuate in-group, but less so out-group, members, then they should be more likely to encode the distinctive features of the in-group than the out-group actresses during the Hiding Phase. Consequently, in the Different condition, they should be more surprised to find only one actress behind the curtain in the in-group than in the out-group condition.

Indeed, we found a significant interaction between Target group and Number of targets, both in terms of dwell time (p=0.037) and fixation count (p=0.03) (see Figure 2). Follow up t-tests comparing the in-group and out-group conditions in the Different condition revealed an almost significant difference in terms of dwell time (p=0.057), and a significant difference in fixation count (p=0.023). In a manipulation check conducted at the end of the procedure, 75% of infants in the in-group condition chose a neutral puppet associated with their group.

Previous findings have documented that by 6- or 9-months of age, infants are better at recognizing members of their own-race compared to those from another race (Kelly et al., 2007). The conclusion from those studies is that infants become experts in processing faces familiar to them in their natural environment, and via perceptual narrowing, become less apt at differentiating other-race faces. Here, all faces were ecologically equally familiar to infants, and all that distinguished between them was their arbitrary group membership. And still, this sufficed to give rise to a biased construal of in- vs out-group members. This lends support to the idea that such biases might also be grounded in motivational processes, e.g., a disinterest in individuating out-groups members.

Authors

• Adi Fogiel, Bar-Ilan University
  Presenting Author

• Jonas Hermes, University of Goettingen
  Non-Presenting Author

• Tanya Behne, University of Goettingen
  Non-Presenting Author

• Hannes Rakoczy, University of Gottingen
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gil Diesendruck, Bar-Ilan University
  Non-Presenting Author