Child Psychology 560 Social Development and Social Cognition 2 03 04 2014 Social Categories and Attitudes Perception Memory Inferences Prejudices Three Distinctions Hard to meet someone without noting these 3 features Gender Race Age Seeing Gender Infants First Question How early do children see development Looking time study o o o Looking time study Take 2 o o o Method 3 4 month old babies saw a picture of female male head Measure How long babies looked at males vs females Finding Babies looked longer at female faces Method Babies with male primary caregiver Measure How long babies looked at males vs females Finding Babies looked longer at male faces Take away messages o o Babies detect gender in the first year of lilfe Babies looking preferences are influenced by their primary caregivers gender Gender Preferences Children Naturalistic observations Controlled Laboratory Tasks o o Which child would you want as your friend picture of girl and boy Finding kids as young as 3 years of age prefer same gender kids Take Away Message o Young children not only perceive gender also show gender ingroup favoritism by 2 3 years Seeing Race Infants Question Do infants notice race in faces Procedure Show two faces to infants size by size black and white Participants 3 month old White babies in Israel Black babies in Ethiopia and Black babies in Israel Israel is a very white community had equal interaction with both races Results o o o Take Away Messages o o White babies looked longer at white faces Black babies looked longer at black faces Black babies in Israel looked at white faces longer Babies detect race in the first year of life Babies looking preferences are influence by their exposure to people of different races Why do young babies show spontaneous preferences for faces of the same race as those in their environment o One possibility o Perhaps looking time measures infants social preferences Another possibility Ease of processing effects Race preferences in Infancy o o o o Baby reaching study White 10 month old infants Question Do infants prefer to interact with same race people Procedure White or black person holding out toys to babies Results Babies were equally likely to take toys from the same vs other race person Language Preferences o o o Look longer at faces that they are most exposed to in environment Had women talking in English vs French accent Held out toys Babies prefer toy of woman who spoke same language Take Away Messages o o Although babies notice race they don t seem to show social preference for same race people Babies do show social preferences based on language and so do older kids and adults btw Race Preferences Children Controlled Laboratory Tasks Gender and race trials o o Which child would you want as your friend Findings 3 year old children showed robust preferences for children of their own gender M 75 No evidence for race based social preferences at 3 years 54 But once 5 years old same preference shoots up to 76 o Why do older children being showing race based social preferences Huge increase Suggestion minimal group effects Minimal Group Effects o o o o o Participants 5 year old children First Has them pick either left or right hand and based off of choice are put into a certain group Kids in red shirts vs blue shirts Then Dependent on measures focused on attitudes toward the two groups Key Finding Kids prefer that t shirt group to the other t shirt group Had never met kids before told on same day what group they were in Asymmetries in Racial Attitudes Clark and Clark Doll Studies 1930s 1950s o A Girl Like Me video Had kids choose between black and white dolls Even black girls took white doll 15 21 preferred white Aboud Skerry 1984 reviewed 37 studies of attitudes of Black children living in countries where the majority population is White o Own race preferences in 27 of studies o No preference in 57 o Other race preference 16 What accounts for asymmetires in Racial attitudes o 1 Differences in relative familiarity o Don t see other races very often 2 Perceptions of social status Problem In the U S these factors are confounded Solution Cross cultural studies South Africa Racial make up contrasts with the U S but status differences look like the U S o o o Xhosa children living in a predominantly Xhosa township in Cape Town Mean age 7 years Tested in Xhosa by a Xhosa experimenter Gave race and gender trials test Whom do you want to be friends with Showed gender preferences but not racial bias Participants o o o o Black majority but whites have higher social status Participants Black and White children at divers primary school Mean age 6 5 years Black and white children showed high same gender preferences Black and white children showed preference both showed preference for white individuals though Answer Perceptions of social status o What accounts for asymmetires in racial attitudes Race Preferences Even Older Children Explicit Attitudes White Participants o Self reported preferences Six year olds said 80 white black 10 year olds said 70 Adults said 50 Implicit Attitudes White participants o Implicit Attitudes Test 6 year olds 10 year olds and adults all had equal answers all preferred ownraces Study 8 9 year olds vs 10 11 year old children play guess who o Results Younger children outperformed older children on a race relevant version of the task results reversed for race neutral task Older children more reserved vary about asking questions about race Attitudes for Older Minority Group Children o o Begin to show strong explicit ingroup favoritism 8 years But null effects on implicit association tests Take equally long on test no bias Race in Childhood Take Away Messages o o o Young preschoolers do not show race based social preferences White Children begin to show racial ingroup favoritism around 4 5 years of age but Black children do not Status plays a role in guiding the racial preferences of older preschoolers and children o Children s own identity and age affect how they respond to race Things to Think About Gender seems really important to young children in early development Finally There are individual differences in levels of prejudice in children and adults o o What accounts for these differences How might we ameliorate prejudice more generally 03 04 2014 03 04 2014