Children form group biases only when categories gain salience from adult use.

Evidence

Bigler and colleagues (Bigler, Brown, & Markell, 2001; Brown & Bigler, 2002) arranged for children to wear either blue or yellow t-shirts at school for several weeks, thus manipulating social categories and identity. Only when teachers used t-shirt color to organize class activities did children use these categories for a more positive, but not less negative, ingroup evaluation. Social status was manipulated in a naturalistic way with posters distinguishing highand low-status personnel according to t-shirt color; highbut not low-status children made differential group evaluations. In contrast, when numerical status was manipulated, those who were significantly outnumbered by their classmates used the categories regardless of the teacher’s use of them. This research comes closest to testing variables from three boxes in our integrated framework, namely the child (ages/stages and identity/status) and peer intergroup contact. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2022 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Because subjects in the Hoffman and Hurst studies were judging fictional groups on another planet, they had no personal or group conduct in need of justification. Nevertheless, they attributed traits to each of the groups in such a way that the existing state of affairs was reinforced. Hoffman and Hurst (1990) write that gender “stereotypes are largely an attempt to rationalize, justify, or explain the sexual division of labor” (p. 199), a conclusion that forms the basis of our system-justification approach. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2921 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Children only form ingroup bias from categories when adults make them functional — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2022; Children infer prejudice from observed social regularities even without overt parental bias — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2016; Even minimal, meaningless group membership triggers ingroup-favoring discrimination in children — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2003 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Children only form ingroup bias from categories when adults make them functional #corroborates (0.95) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2022
• Children adopt prejudice via parental identification and status comparison. #complicates (0.78)
• Stereotyping occurs even without personal stake in the groups judged #complicates (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2921