TY - JOUR
T1 - Children use wealth cues to evaluate others
AU - Shutts, Kristin
AU - Brey, Elizabeth L.
AU - Dornbusch, Leah A.
AU - Slywotzky, Nina
AU - Olson, Kristina R.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2016 Shutts et al.This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2016/3
Y1 - 2016/3
N2 - Wealth differences between individuals are ubiquitous in modern society, and often serve as the basis for biased social evaluations among adults. The present research probed whether children use cues that are commonly associated with wealth differences in society to guide their consideration of others. In Study 1, 4-5-year-old participants from diverse racial backgrounds expressed preferences for children who were paired with high-wealth cues; White children in Study 1 also matched high-wealth stimuli with White faces. Study 2 conceptually replicated the preference effect from Study 1, and showed that young children (4-6 years) also use material wealth indicators to guide their inferences about people's relative standing in other domains (i.e., competence and popularity). Study 3 revealed that children (5-9 years) use a broad range of wealth cues to guide their evaluations of, and actions toward, unfamiliar people. Further, biased responses were not attenuated among children whose families were lower in socioeconomic status. Often overlooked by those who study children's attitudes and stereotypes, social class markers appear to influence evaluations, inferences, and behavior early in development.
AB - Wealth differences between individuals are ubiquitous in modern society, and often serve as the basis for biased social evaluations among adults. The present research probed whether children use cues that are commonly associated with wealth differences in society to guide their consideration of others. In Study 1, 4-5-year-old participants from diverse racial backgrounds expressed preferences for children who were paired with high-wealth cues; White children in Study 1 also matched high-wealth stimuli with White faces. Study 2 conceptually replicated the preference effect from Study 1, and showed that young children (4-6 years) also use material wealth indicators to guide their inferences about people's relative standing in other domains (i.e., competence and popularity). Study 3 revealed that children (5-9 years) use a broad range of wealth cues to guide their evaluations of, and actions toward, unfamiliar people. Further, biased responses were not attenuated among children whose families were lower in socioeconomic status. Often overlooked by those who study children's attitudes and stereotypes, social class markers appear to influence evaluations, inferences, and behavior early in development.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0149360
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0149360
M3 - Article
C2 - 26933887
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 11
JO - PLoS One
JF - PLoS One
IS - 3
M1 - e0149360
ER -