God as a White man

• In Event: 2-085 - Power, privilege, and position: How children use and reinforce social hierarchies

Integrative Statement

In the U.S., the reality that White men occupy the highest social status is uncontroversial, but as just two examples, to date, 98% of U.S. Presidents have been White men, and in 2018, 89% of Fortune 500 companies were led by White men. This reality, resulting from a long history of racism and sexism, rather than innate traits of White men, influences both children and adults to assume that White men are the most ambitious, intelligent, creative, and fit for high-status leadership positions (Bian et al., 2017; Pauker et al., 2006). We propose that another hierarchy – one that is believed to transcend the social realm – reinforces concepts of White male superiority. Specifically, we hypothesized that many U.S. Christian children conceptualize God as a White man, and that this concept predicts perceiving White men as more high-status than Black people and women.

Thus far (data collection is ongoing), we have recruited 168 U.S. Christian children, ages 4 to 12 (51% = female, Mage = 7.48, SD = 2.31, 90 = White/European American, 78 = racial minorities). First, children were given a standardized set of 14 crayons and asked to draw God. Second, children were shown 12 pairs of faces, with each pair differing on a single domain: age (e.g., White man vs. White boy), race (e.g., White girl vs. Black girl), or gender (e.g., Black man vs. Black woman). For each pair, children were asked, “Which person do you think looks most like God?” (i.e., forced-choice task). Third, children were shown an array of 12 faces that differed in race (Black, White) and gender (female, male), and asked to identify which three they thought were the bosses. Lastly, children completed measures of race-based and sex-based prejudice, which were included as covariates in all analyses. We first had a sample of 110 adults recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk rated each child’s drawing for perceived race (1 = White, 7 = Black) and gender (1 = female, 7 = male).

Overall, the drawings were rated as depicting a God that was more White than Black (M = 4.48, p < .001) and more male than female (M = 4.74, p < .001). Second, on the forced-choice task, children selected mostly old faces, White faces, and male faces (see Fig 1). Racial minority children were less likely than White children to select White faces. Third, children’s belief that God was White, as measured by the forced-choice task, predicted their tendency to select more White bosses (b = 1.23, p < .001), and their belief that God was male, as measured by the forced-choice task, predicted their tendency to select more male bosses (b = .61, p = .02). Notably, these effects became stronger with age.

Our data suggest that U.S. Christian children conceptualize this entity as a White man, and that this concept predicts perceiving White men as more high-status than Black people and women. Implications for creating change, and potential mechanisms underlying these relations will be discussed.

Authors

• Steven O. Roberts, Stanford University
  Presenting Author

• Michelle Wang, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jonathan D. Lane, Vanderbilt University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Camilla Griffiths, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kiara Sanchez, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amber Williams, California Polytechnic State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mishaela Robison, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author