Who’s the Boss? Children increase equality while limiting the upward mobility of minorities

• In Event: Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Topic -Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Abstract

Social mobility is the concept that individuals can change their status in society. The now nearly mythologized concept of the “American Dream” is predicated on the idea that hard work is sufficient to advance one’s position in the United States, and it is largely insensitive to structural inequalities that might hinder social mobility. Determining whether or not the American Dream is a reality is beyond the scope of the current project. However, we can use developmental approaches to explore whether or not children share similar egalitarian beliefs about social mobility. Is the American Dream a historical construction, or does it simply reflect a naïve and persistent representation of how people move through hierarchical structures? In the current study, we presented children with a pegboard representing a three-level hierarchical structure: a workplace, that consisted of a “Big Boss,” “Little Bosses,” and “Workers,” see Figure 1. We then asked children to “promote” individuals to higher levels of the structure. The starting state of each workplace was unequal, constructed of majority and minority members. We presented children with race and gender minorities, as well as an arrangement of different colored triangles, which we presented as a control. If children believe that all individuals are equally socially mobile, then we would expect to see children promote individuals in a relatively distributed manner. However, it has been well established that children have an aversion to inequality (Rizzo, Elenbaas, & Vanderbilt, 2018; Shaw & Olsen, 2012; etc.). Thus, they may “promote” more minorities in order to make the overarching structure more equitable. A 2 (Age Group) X 3 (Dimension) X 3 (Level) X 2 (Gender) mixed factorial ANOVA showed a significant main effect of Dimension, F(2,152)=16.66, p<.001, η2p=.18, and Level, F(2,152)=13.30, p<.001, η2p=.15, with a significant Dimension X Level interaction, F(4,304)=2.45, p=.046, η2p=.03. Children moved up more majority “triangle” employees than they did White men in the gender (p<.001) or race conditions (p<.001). Additionally, children’s selections differed depending on the hierarchical level to which they were promoting people. Children chose more majority than minority employees to be promoted to “big boss” than they did “worker,” p<.001. Furthermore, when judging the control hierarchy, children promoted more majority employees to the first and second tier than the third (ps<.001). When judging humans, children promoted more men to the top level than they did women (p=.045) but no differences in level were found when promoting White and Black men. These results suggest that children are more concerned about making hierarchical structures equal when those structures are filled with people than triangles. However, they tended to reinforce majority authority by promoting primarily white men to “big boss.” Further research is required to understand whether this response pattern reflected an intuitive concept of a “glass ceiling,” or if these selections were attributable to the characteristics of White men or the complexity of the social hierarchy.

Authors

• Megan Norris, University of Louisville
  Presenting Author

• Nicholaus Noles, University of Louisville
  Non-Presenting Author