Young children form generalized attitudes based on a single encounter with an outgroup member

• In Event: Cognition and Bias

Abstract

How children generalize from individual encounters to entire groups of people is fundamental to social cognitive development (Kalish, 2012; Ma et al., 2018) and can have far-reaching implications (Wodak et al., 2015). When generalizations are negative, they can align with extreme forms of outgroup bias that inflict grievous harm on individuals and sow deep social divisions. However, positive interpersonal experiences also hold the promise of creating more favorable views of the outgroup (Allport, 1954).
The current study examines the attitudes generalization process among a group of young children who were exposed to a member of an unfamiliar racial outgroup for the very first time. We address this question with reference to anti-Black racism, as the world witnesses all-time high advocacy for social equity. In two preregistered studies, 5- to 6-year-old Chinese children (total N = 147) encountered a Black adult from another country for the very first time, and they played a game together. We measured the effects of the interaction on children’s attitudes toward the individual outgroup member (e.g., feelings of similarity, closeness, warmth, and competence), as well as generalized implicit and explicit racial attitudes toward the outgroup as a whole.
In Study 1, we found that the interaction with a single outgroup member reduced children’s negative feelings toward her specifically (i.e., perceived similarity, feelings of closeness, and warmth), all F > 4.87, p < .040, partial η² > .07. It also led to more negative implicit bias toward Black people, F(1, 60) = 25.04, p < .001, partial η² = .29. In Study 2, we replicated these findings and showed that exposing children to the same form of in-person interaction with an ingroup member rather than an outgroup member had no such effect on their implicit or explicit attitudes toward Black people, all p > .675.
These studies demonstrate for the first time that a single, brief in-person interaction with an outgroup member can lead to generalizations about the outgroup as a whole. We also found diverging effects on children’s implicit and explicit attitudes, with positive effects on explicit attitudes and negative effects on implicit attitudes. Our research lays the foundation for studying the effects of interactions with outgroup members in a way that is ecologically valid while still allowing for experimental control, and our findings show that children can make sweeping generalizations about an unfamiliar outgroup based on minimal information.

Authors

• Miao Qian, University of Detroit Mercy
  Presenting Author

• Chengfei Yu
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jamie Amemiya, University of California - San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author

• Genyue Fu, Hangzhou Normal University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kang Lee, University of Toronto
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gail D Heyman, University of California - San Diego
  Non-Presenting Author