Preference for high status predicts implicit outgroup bias among children from low-status groups.
Whereas members of high-status racial groups show ingroup preference when attitudes are measured implicitly, members of low-status racial groups--both adults and children--typically show no bias, potentially reflecting awareness of the ingroup's low status. We hypothesized that when status differences are especially pronounced, children from low-status groups would show an implicit outgroup bias, the strength of which might relate to attitudes toward status. We tested these predictions among 6- to 11-year-old Black and Coloured (i.e., multiracial) children from South Africa, a country marked by extreme status differentials among racial groups. As a measure of implicit intergroup bias, children (N = 78) completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT), a speeded categorization task that assesses the relative strength of association between 2 target groups (in the present study, either Whites vs. Blacks or Whites vs. Coloureds) and positive vs. negative evaluation. Children also completed explicit (i.e., self-report) measures of attitudes toward racial groups as well as toward rich and poor people (a measure of attitudes toward status). Both groups of children showed an implicit outgroup-favoring (i.e., pro-White) bias, suggesting that children were sensitive to the extent of status differences. The only instance in which implicit pro-White bias did not emerge involved Black children's evaluations of Whites vs. Coloureds, both higher-status outgroups. Explicit preference for high status predicted implicit pro-White bias, particularly when the IAT contrasted 2 outgroups. The impact of status on the development of implicit and explicit intergroup bias is discussed.
Department of Psychology, Yale University.
Anna-Kaisa
AK
Newheiser
Department of Psychology, Princeton University.
Yarrow
Y
Dunham
Department of Psychology, Yale University.
Anna
A
Merrill
Department of Psychology, University of the Western Cape.
Leah
L
Hoosain
Department of Psychology, Yale University.
Kristina R
KR
Olson
D001290:Attitude; D001364:Awareness; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D016014:Linear Models; D011287:Prejudice; D012929:Psychological Distance; D011581:Psychological Tests; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D057566:Self Report; D012938:Social Perception; D013019:South Africa; D044465:White People