Essentialist Thinking Predicts Decrements in Children's Memory for Racially Ambiguous Faces

Autor/inn/en	Gaither, Sarah E.; Schultz, Jennifer R.; Pauker, Kristin; Sommers, Samuel R.; Maddox, Keith B.; Ambady, Nalini
Titel	Essentialist Thinking Predicts Decrements in Children's Memory for Racially Ambiguous Faces
Quelle	In: Developmental Psychology, 50 (2014) 2, S.482-488 (7 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0012-1649
DOI	10.1037/a0033493
Schlagwörter	Memory; Children; Race; Ambiguity (Context); Whites; African Americans; Racial Attitudes; Bias; Recognition (Psychology); Massachusetts + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Gedächtnis; Child; Kind; Kinder; Rasse; Abstammung; White; Weißer; Afroamerikaner; Rassenfrage; Recognition; Wiedererkennen; Master-Studiengang
Abstract	Past research shows that adults often display poor memory for racially ambiguous and racial outgroup faces, with both face types remembered worse than own-race faces. In the present study, the authors examined whether children also show this pattern of results. They also examined whether emerging essentialist thinking about race predicts children's memory for faces. Seventy-four White children (ages 4-9 years) completed a face-memory task comprising White, Black, and racially ambiguous Black-White faces. Essentialist thinking about race was also assessed (i.e., thinking of race as immutable and biologically based). White children who used essentialist thinking showed the same bias as White adults: They remembered White faces significantly better than they remembered ambiguous and Black faces. However, children who did not use essentialist thinking remembered both White and racially ambiguous faces significantly better than they remembered Black faces. This finding suggests a specific shift in racial thinking wherein the boundaries between racial groups become more discrete, highlighting the importance of how race is conceptualized in judgments of racially ambiguous individuals. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01