“Catching” Social Bias: Exposure to Biased Nonverbal Signals Creates Social Biases in Preschool Children

TY - JOUR

T1 - “Catching” Social Bias

T2 - Exposure to Biased Nonverbal Signals Creates Social Biases in Preschool Children

AU - Skinner, Allison L.

AU - Meltzoff, Andrew N.

AU - Olson, Kristina R.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.

PY - 2017/2/1

Y1 - 2017/2/1

N2 - Identifying the origins of social bias is critical to devising strategies to overcome prejudice. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that young children can catch novel social biases from brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals demonstrated by adults. Our results are consistent with this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, we found that children who were exposed to a brief video depicting nonverbal bias in favor of one individual over another subsequently explicitly preferred, and were more prone to behave prosocially toward, the target of positive nonverbal signals. Moreover, in Experiment 2, preschoolers generalized such bias to other individuals. The spread of bias observed in these experiments lays a critical foundation for understanding the way that social biases may develop and spread early in childhood.

AB - Identifying the origins of social bias is critical to devising strategies to overcome prejudice. In two experiments, we tested the hypothesis that young children can catch novel social biases from brief exposure to biased nonverbal signals demonstrated by adults. Our results are consistent with this hypothesis. In Experiment 1, we found that children who were exposed to a brief video depicting nonverbal bias in favor of one individual over another subsequently explicitly preferred, and were more prone to behave prosocially toward, the target of positive nonverbal signals. Moreover, in Experiment 2, preschoolers generalized such bias to other individuals. The spread of bias observed in these experiments lays a critical foundation for understanding the way that social biases may develop and spread early in childhood.

KW - children

KW - nonverbal behavior

KW - open data

KW - open materials

KW - preregistered

KW - social bias

KW - social learning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85011928608&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85011928608&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0956797616678930

DO - 10.1177/0956797616678930

M3 - Article

C2 - 28182525

SN - 0956-7976

VL - 28

SP - 216

EP - 224

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

IS - 2

ER -