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European‐American children's intergroup attitudes about peer relationships
Author(s) -
McGlothlin Heidi,
Killen Melanie,
Edmonds Christina
Publication year - 2005
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 - 10.1348/026151005x26101
Subject(s) - psychology , friendship , prejudice (legal term) , social psychology , similarity (geometry) , developmental psychology , race (biology) , perception , commit , implicit association test , botany , database , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , computer science , image (mathematics) , biology
Intergroup attitudes were assessed in European‐American first grade ( M =6.8 years) and fourth grade ( M =9.9 years) boys and girls ( N =94) to test hypotheses about implicit racial biases, perceptions of similarity between peer dyads, and judgments about cross‐race friendships. Two assessments, an ambiguous situations task and a perceptions of similarity task, were administered to all participants. Contrary to prior findings, participants did not display implicit racial biases when interpreting children's intentions to commit a negative moral transgression towards a peer. Implicit biases were revealed, however, when asking children to judge cross‐race friendship potential. The findings on children's similarity perceptions revealed that children focused on shared interests and race when judging similarity. Given that previous meta‐analyses of prejudice have pointed to cross‐race friendships as a significant predictor of a reduction in prejudice, these findings help to understand what may account for the relative infrequency of intergroup friendships in childhood. Further, the findings indicate the ways in which, implicit racial biases influence friendship decisions.