The Root of Racial Biases
6/29/17
It’s been shown before that infants as early as 3 months old are able to tell different races apart and that they even show longer looking-time (and therefore a preference) for the race that is most prominent throughout their environment (and NOT necessarily the race that the infants are themselves). For instance, Black infants raised in Ethiopia looked longer at Black faces while Black infants raised in Israel looked longer at white faces (Bar-Haim et. al, 2006). This might suggest that a child’s racial preference would not necessarily be due to in-group bias (favoring those who are members of their own social groups) but actually due to familiarity (favoring those who are most prevalent in their environment).
This hypothesis holds true in an evaluation of children’s racial preferences in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Australia (all countries where there is a white majority): white children showed a preference for unfamiliar white children over unfamiliar racial-minority children while racial-minority children show much weaker in-group favoritism (Aboud, 1988; Aboud & Skerry, 1984; Newman, Liss & Sherman, 1983; Ramsey & Myers, 1990; Spencer, 1984).
However, another hypothesis could be that children prefer certain races not because they are more accustomed to seeing them in their environment but rather because certain groups have higher social status (in the form of wealth and socioeconomic status) than others: even in the U.S. the median White family wealth is 20 times greater than median Black family wealth (Kochhar et. Al, 2011). Perhaps children pick up on these social cues in order to determine their preferences about race.
To test this hypothesis, Professors Shutts (University of Wisconsin Madison), Kinzler (University of Chicago), Katz and Spelke (Harvard), and Tredoux (University of Cape Town) turned their attention to South Africa: a unique country where, due to years of legislated racial discrimination during apartheid, Whites remain higher in socioeconomic status yet Blacks make up the racial majority. Studying children’s racial preferences in South Africa would determine whether or not familiarity or social status was the main driving factor behind children’s racial preferences.
Apartheid ended in 1991.
They carried out a series of different studies asking children from different backgrounds (a multiracial school and a black township) of different races (Coloured/of mixed race, Black, and White) to pick which unfamiliar picture of a person they would rather be friends with. Each comparison was between a Xhosa (the second largest ethnic group in South Africa) face and a face of a different race (either Coloured, Foreign Black African, or White). If the familiarity hypothesis were true then the children would show preference patterns reversed from those in white-majority countries, but if the social status hypothesis was true, then the children would show similar race preference patterns as in white-majority countries.
Results showed that South African children also showed similar race preference patterns as in white-majority countries: children largely preferred White faces over Xhosa faces and Coloured faces over Xhosa faces but preferred Xhosa faces over Foreign Black African faces. This evidence points in the direction of children using social status as the main determining factor when forming racial biases and not familiarity (although familiarity does still play a role as can be seen in the reduced biases of children who live in the black township).
Since this evidence leads us to believe that children show racial biases based on racial groups’ social statuses, we can use this information to potentially intervene and rid of racial discrimination and biases before they are solidified as adults. In a world where race is one of the immediately obvious characteristics of a person, it can mean a whole lot how we learn to value different races at a young age. Maybe we could find more effective ways to instill in children the idea that material wealth or social status shouldn’t be an indicator of a person’s overall value. Children’s TV shows and movies could stop depicting richer kids as more popular or happier, and maybe even in schools, activities such as show and tell (where some kids might bring in more expensive toys/games than others) could be lead by the teacher to show an equal appreciation for all belongings regardless of how new or expensive they are. Additionally, parents could teach their children that money can’t buy happiness and is not a defining factor of someone’s success or happiness by showing ways to have fun without spending a ton (ex. building a blanket fort can be just as fun as going to a movie theater or buying a new toy). All these things may help children to reduce the pro-wealth biases that are being currently being observed and subsequently could reduce racial biases as well.