Learning (not) to talk about race: when older children underperform in social categorization.
The present research identifies an anomaly in sociocognitive development, whereby younger children (8 and 9 years) outperform their older counterparts (10 and 11 years) in a basic categorization task in which the acknowledgment of racial difference facilitates performance. Though older children exhibit superior performance on a race-neutral version of the task, their tendency to avoid acknowledging race hinders objective success when race is a relevant category. That these findings emerge in late childhood, in a pattern counter to the normal developmental trajectory of increased cognitive expertise in categorization, suggests that this anomaly indicates the onset of a critical transition in human social development.
Apfelbaum
Evan P
EP
Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155, USA. evan.apfelbaum@tufts.edu
Pauker
Kristin
K
Ambady
Nalini
N
Sommers
Samuel R
SR
Norton
Michael I
MI
D000367:Age Factors; D001288:Attention; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D012938:Social Perception; D012945:Social Values; D013240:Stereotyping; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology*