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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Even prior to entering school, children hold intergroup biases regarding social groups that vary in race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, disability, etc. One of the most effective ways to reduce such biases is by having diverse children engage in meaningful, frequent, and collaborative interactions. Unfortunately, this optimal strategy is often times inapplicable. This symposium includes four papers on school-aged children from diverse cultural settings, describing bias-reducing interventions that vary in their intensity and degree of contact, and targeting various social groups.
Paper 1 shows that an 8-week classroom intervention program with indirect and direct contact among American children, led them to evaluate interracial peer exclusion as more wrong and to associate more positive traits with interracial peers. Paper 2 presents two studies among Jewish-Israeli kindergartners and 2nd graders, showing that: 1) 4-week vicarious contact via dolls improved attitudes towards outgroups, but also 2) sheer provision of information about an individual Arab improved children’s attitudes toward Arabs. Paper 3 found that a 3-session imagined contact intervention improved Italian children’s attitudes towards children with disability. A second study found that vicarious contact via videos or stories were equally effective in improving attitudes and increasing helping intentions. Finally, Paper 4 demonstrates that simply manipulating children’s conceptualization of prejudice as malleable or fixed, affected American children’s interest in cross-race interactions.
Together, these studies showcase novel interventions for reducing intergroup biases in children. The studies highlight how both, multi-week but also single-shot no-contact interventions, can have substantive effects on children living in various social-cultural-political contexts.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Gil Diesendruck, Bar Ilan University

Individual Presentations

• Intergroup Contact and Teacher Support are Related to Reducing Bias and Promoting Inclusive Classrooms - Presenting Author: Elise Marie Kaufman, University of Maryland - College Park; Jacquelyn Glidden, University of Maryland - College Park; Arvid Samuelson, University of Maryland - College Park; Melanie A. Killen, University of Maryland - College Park

• Provision of Information About Out-group Members as an Effective Intervention to Reduce Intergroup Bias - Presenting Author: Meytal Nasie, Tel Aviv University; Margalit Ziv, Kaye Academic College of Education; Gil Diesendruck, Bar Ilan University

• Using Indirect Intergroup Contact Strategies to Foster the Inclusion of Disadvantaged Children - Presenting Author: Elisa Bisagno, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia; Alessia Cadamuro, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; Gian Antonio Di Bernardo; Veronica Margherita Cocco; Sofia Stathi, University of Greenwich, UK; Richard Crisp, Durham University, UK; Loris Vezzali, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia

• Believing That Prejudice can Change Increases Children's Interest in Interracial Interactions - Presenting Author: Kristin J.M.B. Pauker, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa; Evan P. Apfelbaum, Questrom School of Business, Boston University; Carol S Dweck, Stanford University; Jennifer Eberhardt, Stanford University