title: Can White children grow up to be Black? Children's reasoning about the stability of emotion and race.
abstract: Recent research questions whether children conceptualize race as stable. We examined participants' beliefs about the relative stability of race and emotion, a temporary feature. Participants were White adults and children ages 5-6 and 9-10 (Study 1) and racial minority children ages 5-6 (Study 2). Participants were presented with target children who were happy or angry and Black or White and were asked to indicate which of 2 adults (a race but not emotion match or an emotion but not race match) each child would grow up to be. White adults, White 9- to 10-year-olds, and racial minority 5- to 6-year-olds selected race matches, whereas White 5- to 6-year-olds selected race and emotion matches equally. These data suggest that beliefs about racial stability vary by age and social group. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Steven O
authors.initials: SO
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: Susan A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Gelman
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004644:Emotions; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents; D010379:Peer Group; D011581:Psychological Tests; D002666:Psychology, Child; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000523:psychology*; D012938:Social Perception; D013850:Thinking