Infants’ Biased Individuation of In-group Members

• In Event: Novel Insights on the Development of Social Group Stereotypes and how to Change Them

Abstract

A representational bias that is foundational to group stereotyping and prejudice is the tendency to construe out-group members as homogeneous category exemplars, and in-group members as unique individuals (aka, “the out-group homogeneity effect”). Recent studies show that this bias is manifest in early childhood. Here we asked whether it is present already in infants.

We used two converging methods to address this question. In Study 1, we assessed whether infants perceive in-group members as distinct individuals, more so than out-group members. We established group membership adopting a method previously used to create “minimal groups” in infants. Namely, we assessed 96 12-month-olds’ preferences on two dimensions: apron color (green or yellow) and food type (crackers or peas). A third of these infants were given other choices, and they constituted the No-group condition. All infants then watched videos of two women, dressed in a shirt either matching (In-group condition) or mismatching (Out-group condition) the color of infants’ apron preference, and repeatedly selecting either the same or the opposite food the infant had chosen. Infants then watched a video in which either one (Same scenario) or two (Different scenario) women appeared, one at a time, from behind a curtain. Finally, the curtain opened revealing only one of the women. As displayed in Figure 1, in the Different scenario, infants in the In-group condition looked the longest after seeing two different women appearing from behind the curtain, and then only one being revealed. That is, infants in the In-group condition, more than those in the Out-group and No-group conditions, processed the two women in the Different scenario as indeed two distinct individuals.

In Study 2, we investigated whether infants expect all out-group members to have similar preferences, more so than in-group members. In this study, we assessed 45 18-month-olds’ preferences for color and food as done in Study 1. Infants then saw videos in which four women either shared or not infants’ preferences for food and color -- thus establishing the In- or Out-group conditions respectively. For the third group of infants, the women’s preferences had no relation to the infants’ initial choices and thus this constituted the No-group condition. Then, infants saw three of the women, one at a time, selecting the same one of two novel objects. Finally, at test, infants saw the 4th woman selecting the other object (i.e., acted inconsistently with the preference of the three previous group members). As can be seen in Figure 2, infants were the least surprised when an in-group woman manifested a preference different from the other members of her group. And as in Study 1, here too infants’ response to an in-group member was also different from their response to a member of “no-group”.

Taken together, these studies point to the early emergence of an intergroup construal bias akin to the out-group homogeneity effect seen in adults and children. Moreover, these studies indicate that what seems to drive this construal bias is the representation of in-group members as unique individuals.

Authors

• Gil Diesendruck, Bar Ilan University
  Presenting Author

• Matar Ferera, Bar-Ilan University

• Adi Fogiel Zehavi, Bar-Ilan University

• Jonas Hermes, University of Göttingen

• Hannes Rakoczy, University of Göttingen