Believing That Prejudice can Change Increases Children's Interest in Interracial Interactions

• In Event: Reducing Children's Intergroup Biases: Effective Cross-Cultural Interventions

Abstract

Children begin interacting less across racial lines around middle childhood, but it remains unclear why. Given that intergroup friendships lead to long-term benefits, including more positive intergroup attitudes and reduced interracial anxiety (Davies et al., 2011), interventions during middle-childhood aimed at disrupting this trend can be important. Much past research has focused on overcoming negative racial attitudes and prejudice in order to increase positive interracial interactions (Aboud et al., 2012). Here, we focus on the importance of children’s prejudice theories: their conception of prejudice itself as a quality of individuals that is fixed versus malleable (Carr et al., 2012; Pauker et al., 2022). We examine the novel possibility that, in middle childhood, children’s prejudice theories—their understanding of prejudice as a fixed or malleable attribute—begin to influence their desire for interracial affiliation.

Specifically, we explored whether children’s behavior in interracial contexts may be shaped by their interpretations of the “social stakes” of the situation. We hypothesized that theories about prejudice—whether prejudice was considered more fixed or malleable—would provide an interpretive framework for responding to the perceived challenge of interracial contexts. Study 1 measured prejudice theories among 8–13-year-olds (N=152; 61 males, 91 females; Mage = 9.86 years, SDage = 1.17; 76 White, 42 Latinx, 22 Asian, 9 Multiracial, and 3 Black children) and observed children in a newly-developed social interaction task. Study 2 randomly assigned 10-12-year-olds to listen to a fixed- or malleable-prejudice theory story before engaging in a real, first-time interaction with a same- or cross-race partner at a different school via live video-stream (N = 150; 75 dyads; Mage = 10.42 years, SDage = 0.65; 76 males, 74 females; 96 White, 16 Asian, 17 Latinx, and 21 Black).

In line with our hypothesis, in Study 1, children older than 10 years with stronger malleable prejudice theories exhibited more interest, (B = -0.42, p = 0.002), and affiliation (B = -0.78, p = 0.007) in a simulated cross- (vs. same-race) interaction, regardless of their preexisting prejudice level. In Study 2, children exposed to an intervention that emphasized prejudice is malleable (compared to fixed), exhibited more engagement in interracial contexts. Both partners had a greater interest in interacting again in the future, when one partner was exposed to a malleable message about prejudice, t(71) = 1.84, p = 0.035. Our findings suggest that increased engagement (or disengagement) in interracial interaction can arise developmentally from pathways independent of prejudiced attitudes, despite the fact that most theories and interventions target such biases. Nevertheless, the primary focus on children’s prejudicial attitudes leaves open important questions about how to foster more affiliative intergroup behaviors. Emphasizing the malleability of prejudice may be a promising avenue to mitigate interracial tension.

Authors

• Kristin J.M.B. Pauker, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
  Presenting Author

• Evan P. Apfelbaum, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

• Carol S Dweck, Stanford University

• Jennifer Eberhardt, Stanford University