Poster #77 - The Impact of Community Integration on the Other-Race Effect in Infancy

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

The other-race effect (ORE) is characterized by biases that benefit the processing of faces of one’s own race over faces of another race and is observed by approximately 9 months of age (Kelly et al, 2007). Environmental exposure to other races has an impact on the development of the ORE (Bar-Haim et al., 2006). In the current study, we broadly examined the effects of community racial integration on the ORE in 9- to 12-month-olds from communities across the United States. We hypothesized that community racial diversity would influence the amount of experience that infants have with individuals of other races and be an important factor in predicting the ORE across broad regions of the U.S. We predicted that infants from more diverse communities would demonstrate successful processing of own- and other-race faces, while infants from less diverse communities would demonstrate successful processing own-race, but not other-race faces. This would indicate that the other race effect is exhibited more strongly in infants from less diverse communities than infants from more diverse communities. Participants completed the study online using the Lookit platform. The study began with a 30 s familiarization with an own-race or other-race face. Participants then viewed the familiarized face beside a novel face of the same race. This procedure was repeated with a set of faces that was not included in the first part of the study (i.e., either own-race or other-race faces). Visual attention was measured to determine whether the infant demonstrated a novelty preference, evidenced by increased looking to the unfamiliar face, which indicates that the infant remembers the familiarized face and can discriminate it from an unfamiliar face. Preliminary results (N = 12) revealed that participants looked longer to novel (M = 4.649s) than familiar faces (M = 3.588s) in the test trials when familiarized with own-race faces, p < .05. There were no significant differences in looking to other-race faces in the test trials, providing evidence of the presence of the ORE across participants, p = .476. Six participants belonged to a racial group that comprised >50% of the local population based on zip code data, while six belonged to a racial group that comprised <50% of the local population. This rough measure of community diversity was not associated with looking preferences. Data collection is ongoing and a larger, more diverse data set may reveal the impact of community diversity on the ORE based on data from the U.S. Census and American Community survey, using measures of racial segregation and integration (Massey and Denton, 1988). This breadth of community measurement has not yet been found in the literature on the ORE. This study has far-reaching implications in the study of infant face perception, child development, and social justice, as the ORE develops at a young age, and it may lead to a complex pattern of racial biases contributing to systemic barriers in society. It is important to understand ways in which early experience may inhibit these early biases from forming.

Authors

• Trinity Hope Bauer, Loyola University Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Cidnee Hall, Loyola University Chicago

• Aslı Bursalıoğlu, Loyola University Chicago

• Timothy O'Brien, Loyola University Chicago

• Maggie W Guy, Loyola University Chicago