title: Individuation training with other-race faces reduces preschoolers' implicit racial bias: a link between perceptual and social representation of faces in children.
abstract: The present study examined whether perceptual individuation training with other-race faces could reduce preschool children's implicit racial bias. We used an 'angry = outgroup' paradigm to measure Chinese children's implicit racial bias against African individuals before and after training. In Experiment 1, children between 4 and 6 years were presented with angry or happy racially ambiguous faces that were morphed between Chinese and African faces. Initially, Chinese children demonstrated implicit racial bias: they categorized happy racially ambiguous faces as own-race (Chinese) and angry racially ambiguous faces as other-race (African). Then, the children participated in a training session where they learned to individuate African faces. Children's implicit racial bias was significantly reduced after training relative to that before training. Experiment 2 used the same procedure as Experiment 1, except that Chinese children were trained with own-race Chinese faces. These children did not display a significant reduction in implicit racial bias. Our results demonstrate that early implicit racial bias can be reduced by presenting children with other-race face individuation training, and support a linkage between perceptual and social representations of face information in children.
authors.affiliation: School of Preschool Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, China.|Dr Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Wen S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: School of Preschool Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, China.
authors.forename: Genyue
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Delaware, USA.
authors.forename: Paul C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: School of Preschool Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, China.
authors.forename: Jinliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Canada.
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition, Université de Grenoble Alpes, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pascalis
authors.affiliation: School of Preschool Teacher Education, Zhejiang Normal University, China.|Dr Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D044383:Black People / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007207:Individuation; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D063505:Racism / Q000523:psychology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012938:Social Perception; D013663:Teaching; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology