Kids’ racial bias lessens as they age, study suggests

Children react positively to members of own race, but weren’t negative to others

A new report suggests children are racially biased but may be less inclined to show prejudice as they get older. It also suggests children have a more positive bias toward their own race than a negative bias toward others.

As a result, researchers say, we should rethink how we combat prejudice in our classrooms.

The research, by Prof. Jennifer Steele at the York University’s Faculty of Health and Amanda Williams of the University of Bristol, involved three studies encompassing 359 Toronto children aged 5 to 12, all of whom were white. The study was recently published in the journal Child Development.

Taking a category-based Implicit Association Test, as well as an “exemplar” test, younger children showed racial biases that were driven primarily by positivity toward their own race.

“What (the research) suggests is that between the ages of 5 and 12, children aren’t necessarily negative to people from other races,” Steele said. “We believe it suggests that programs geared toward decreasing negativity (toward certain races) are not effective.”

In “exemplar” tests, when kids were shown a white or Black child in the split-second before being shown a neutral image and were forced to decide whether the neutral image was “pleasant” or “unpleasant,” those aged 9 to 12 showed no “automatic negativity” toward Black children.

Steele added that although racial bias was still evident among kids aged 5 to 8 using the “exemplar” test, it was not based on bad impressions.