Poster #196 - Variations in Children and Adolescents’ Implicit Racial Bias as a Function of Method

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

This research examined how presentation of single versus dual racial categories influenced children’s implicit bias. Like adults, children display implicit racial bias favoring high status groups when tested with child-adapted versions of the Implicit Attitude Test (IAT) (e.g., Baron & Banaji, 2006; Dunham et al., 2006, 2007). It is unclear, however, whether the bias reflects positive attitudes toward high status groups, negative attitudes toward low status groups, both, or a neutral attitude toward one group and biased attitude toward another.
To investigate this question, 8-year-olds (M = 8.36, SD = .46, range = 7.62-9.47 years, N = 56) and 13-year-olds (M = 13.27, SD = .53, range = 12.01-14.44 years, N = 48) completed single category implicit attitude tests, one with White peers (White SC-IAT) and one with Black peers (Black SC-IAT), that measured whether children associated a particular race category with positive or negative objects (Karpinski & Steinman, 2006). Children then completed the IAT, which measured associations between two race categories (Black and White faces) and positive and negative objects (Greenwald et al., 1998). To determine the predictive validity of the implicit measures, children explicitly selected three peers from six images of same-gender children (3 Black, 3 White) to sit with them in two different hypothetical scenarios.
Results indicated that differences in methodology significantly influenced the amount of implicit bias children displayed. Children showed no implicit positive or negative bias toward Black peers in the Black SC-IAT, but did show positive bias toward White peers in the White SC-IAT, and intergroup bias favoring Whites in the IAT and explicit measures (Table 1). Children’s implicit bias was strongest when dual categories were presented, which could have implications for actual interactions when encountering more than one racial group. Both 8- and 13-year-olds’ scores on the two SC-IATs were unrelated to their score on the IAT, suggesting these measures might tap into different types of implicit bias (Table 2). Surprisingly, the White SC-IAT negatively predicted 8-year-olds’ explicit bias. Such findings might be due to children’s tendency to exhibit socially desirable responses within explicit racial bias tasks around this age (Clark, Hocevar, & Dembo, 1980). Also, 13-year-olds’ IAT scores positively predicted their explicit bias. Because this latter correlation was not found among 8-year-olds, it suggests that the relation between implicit and explicit bias might develop with age.
Findings demonstrate how children’s implicit attitudes vary based on whether one or two racial groups are presented. Results suggest that positive bias for high status groups, rather than negative bias for low status groups, might best account for children and adolescents’ implicit bias. The relatively neutral attitudes toward low status groups suggest the possibility of increasing positive associations with Black peers because attitudes are most easily changed when there is no strong association (Gibson, 2008). The unique predictive validity of children and adolescents’ implicit attitudes also has potential implications for improving social interactions.

Authors

• Andrea J. Kayl, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zarah Rosen, UNLV Baby and Child Rebel Lab, UNLV School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer L. Rennels, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  Presenting Author