Why do children show racial biases in their resource allocation decisions?

ABSTRACT: Young children often prefer people high in status and with access to resources. Children also favor fairness and equality, especially when it comes to sharing. Two studies examined how children (N = 185; age range = 4.0-6.9 years, M_age = 5.49 years; 45% White, 12% Asian, 11% Black, 7% Hispanic, 24% other or undisclosed) reconcile these conflicting preferences by investigating the relation between children's social preferences and resource allocations to White and Black children. Race provides an important case to examine how children resolve this conflict given that children show preferences for stereotypically high-status (White) people but also show awareness of systemic racial inequality that disadvantages Black people. In a costly sharing resource allocation task (i.e., Dict

SUBMITTER: Mandalaywala TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8344356 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature