1. Monoracial and biracial children: effects of racial identity saliency on social learning and social preferences.
- Author
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Gaither SE, Chen EE, Corriveau KH, Harris PL, Ambady N, and Sommers SR
- Subjects
- Black or African American ethnology, Black or African American psychology, Asian ethnology, Asian psychology, Boston ethnology, Child, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Male, Racial Groups ethnology, White People ethnology, White People psychology, Choice Behavior physiology, Learning physiology, Minority Groups psychology, Racial Groups psychology, Social Identification, Social Perception
- Abstract
Children prefer learning from, and affiliating with, their racial in-group but those preferences may vary for biracial children. Monoracial (White, Black, Asian) and biracial (Black/White, Asian/White) children (N = 246, 3-8 years) had their racial identity primed. In a learning preferences task, participants determined the function of a novel object after watching adults (White, Black, and Asian) demonstrate its uses. In the social preferences task, participants saw pairs of children (White, Black, and Asian) and chose with whom they most wanted to socially affiliate. Biracial children showed flexibility in racial identification during learning and social tasks. However, minority-primed biracial children were not more likely than monoracial minorities to socially affiliate with primed racial in-group members, indicating their in-group preferences are contextually based., (© 2014 The Authors. Child Development © 2014 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.)
- Published
- 2014
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