Children infer prejudice from observed social regularities even without overt parental bias

Evidence

Children may assume that because their family has fewer associations with outgroup members, the latter are to be avoided and disliked. Such a minimal learning environment may be a sufficient explanation for young children who give meaning to social regularities, yet it may not explain later learning. Learning processes may be moderated by developmental and identity characteristics of the child learner. Because children have a different understanding and evaluation of self and social information at 5 years compared to 9 years, they will pick out different messages to adopt. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2016

An important question is how children learn bias in the first place, even under circumstances in which their parents do not express overt prejudice. It is not enough to show that paired associate learning can occur in 10- year-olds, because prejudice may first be learned differently (e.g., emotionally, making it harder to eliminate) than the way it can be learned later. Other forms of observational learning may be more common if, for example, children notice that people of the same racial/ethnic group congregate in families and friendship groups. Thus, illusory correlations ( Johnston & Jacobs, 2003) and actual regularities will be quickly observed by preschoolers, who are noted for their eagerness to acquire language and social rules. Children may assume that because their family has fewer associations with outgroup members, the latter are to be avoided and disliked. Such a minimal learning environment may be a sufficient explanation for young children who give meaning to social regularities, yet it may not explain later learning. Learning processes may be moderated by developmental and identity characteristics of the child learner. Because children have a different understanding and evaluation of self and social information at 5 years compared to 9 years, they will pick out different messages to adopt. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2016

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the illusory correlation literature (Hamilton & Gifford) and to social learning theory accounts of prejudice acquisition. — connects to: Children’s apprenticeship-of-observation transmits teacher bias along with pedagogy; Parents’ racist normalization and views often precede a son’s radicalization — Ryan Andrew Brown, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt (RAND Corporation), Violent Extremism in America:…, 310
• QUESTION: The hypothesis that preschool-acquired bias differs in kind (emotional, harder to eliminate) from later learning is flagged as untested — worth chasing.
• SEED: Angle: if prejudice is learned affectively in preschool from mere exposure to group patterning, then contact-based interventions in adolescence fight an emotional rather than cognitive residue.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2016