Racial Bias and Occupation Open Access

Abstract

Social preference and racial bias are ubiquitous, yet the question of their origins and development remain open. In this study, we examined 6-9 year-old children (N=36) on their racial preferences for adults of varying professions: teacher, doctor, police officer, and in an additional control condition with no professional label offered to the child. The children were about equally distributed across Black, White, and Other races. Variation in skin tone was used as a proxy of race within a preferential sorting task paradigm. Results show that in the no-professional label control condition, Black children preferred an individual with darker skin when compared to either White or Other race children. However, in the 3 other occupation labeled conditions, children of all ethnicities demonstrated comparable preferences, with no significant effects of gender or age. We interpret these results in light of enhanced stereotype threat and positive attribute disassociation in Black children regarding adult professional occupations.

Table of Contents

Abstract….………………………………………………………………………………….…….2

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….3            

 Social Categorization …………….….……….…….…………………….…………........3

Development of Racial Preference in Early Childhood.…….....……………………........4

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory…..…………….…..…………….………..6

Adult’s Racial Biases within Occupational Roles..…………….…..…………….…….…7

Children’s Perception of Adults….…..…………….………………..................................9

The Current Study……………………………………………………………...…..……10

Hypotheses...………………..……………………………….………….…………..…...11 

Method……………………………………………………………………………………….......12

          Participants...………………………………………...………………………………..….12

          Materials…...………………………………………...…………………………………...12

Procedure………...…………………………………………….……………..……..……14

Measures……………………………………………………………………………….....14

Preferential Sorting Task…...........................................................................................16

Child’s Rating of Racial Identity...................................................................................18

Parental Racial Categorization......................................................................................18

Exposure Effect.............................................................................................................18

 

Results……………………………………………………………………………...……………19

Descriptive Information and Preliminary Analyses..........................................................17

1^st Choice Measure………………………………............................................................18

Rank Measure……………………………………............................................................21

Age Effect……….. ...........................................................................................................22

Exposure Effect………………………………….............................................................22

 

                       

Discussion………………………...……………………………………………………………..23

Implications….............……..……………………………………………………………26

             Limitations and Future Directions………………………………………....……….…....27

 

References…………………………………………………………………………………..........29

            

Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………….32

 

Figures…………………………………………………………………………………………....40

 

Appendix A………...…………………………………………………………………………….46

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Subfield / Discipline	Cognition and Development
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Social Psychology, Behavioral Sciences Psychology, Developmental
Keyword	Social Categorization Racial Bias Child Development
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Philippe Rochat, Emory University
Committee Members	Elizabeth Kim, Emory University Arber Tasimi, Emory University Eladio Abreu, Emory University

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