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Children's racial bias in perceptions of others' pain
Author(s) -
Dore Rebecca A.,
Hoffman Kelly M.,
Lillard Angeline S.,
Trawalter Sophie
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/bjdp.12038
Subject(s) - psychology , white (mutation) , race (biology) , perception , developmental psychology , racial bias , psychological intervention , cognitive bias , social psychology , cognition , gender studies , psychiatry , biochemistry , chemistry , neuroscience , gene , sociology
Previous research indicates that A merican adults, both B lack and W hite, assume a priori that B lack people feel less pain than do W hite people ( T rawalter, H offman, & W aytz, 2012, PL o S O ne , 7 [11], 1–8). The present work investigates when in development this bias emerges. Five‐, 7‐, and 10‐year‐olds first rated the amount of pain they themselves would feel in 10 situations such as biting their tongue or hitting their head. They then rated the amount of pain they believed two other children – a B lack child and a W hite child, matched to the child's gender – would feel in response to the same events. We found that by age 7, children show a weak racial bias and that by age 10, they show a strong and reliable racial bias. Consistent with research on adults, this bias was not moderated by race‐related attitudes or interracial contact. This finding is important because knowing the age of emergence can inform the timing of interventions to prevent this bias.