A research team of psychology experts has discovered that young children in the United States are less likely than adults to perceive discrimination as harmful, suggesting that these beliefs can form early in life. Furthermore, the results indicate that children perceive acts of discrimination—negative behaviors driven by the victim’s group identity—as less severe than similar harmful actions motivated by unrelated factors.
Earlier this year, a White House report highlighted the ongoing issue of discrimination, particularly racial discrimination, in the United States, prompting inquiries into the formation of the attitudes that drive these behaviors.
Previous studies have shown that discriminatory attitudes tend to increase as children age. However, new research from a team at New York University reveals that younger children in the US are less likely than adults to view discrimination as harmful, indicating that these views originate at a young age. The research also indicates that children tend to view discriminatory behaviors as less serious than comparable harmful actions motivated by other, non-social identity-related reasons.
“Children often witness or experience discrimination themselves—sometimes even being the ones who discriminate,” notes Vivian Liu, the study’s lead author and a doctoral student at NYU during the research, which was published in the journal Cognitive Psychology. “Our findings illustrate that, unlike adults, children in the US perceive discriminatory acts as more acceptable than similar acts driven by different motivations. This perception could encourage children to act in discriminatory ways, discourage them from seeking help when they experience discrimination, and lessen their inclination to intervene when they see discrimination against others.”
Nevertheless, there is a silver lining to these findings. The study revealed that by age 8, children start to recognize the harmful nature of discrimination directed at specific groups.
“This indicates that while children can understand the particular harm caused by discrimination, it’s also crucial that we talk to them about these issues from an early age,” explains Andrei Cimpian, a professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and the paper’s senior author.
The research comprised four studies involving around 600 children (aged 4 to 9) and more than 600 adults in the US. Participants were presented with scenarios depicting harmful actions between members of fictitious groups, comparing contexts where harm resulted from group membership (discrimination) versus harm caused by personal reasons.
In one scenario, for instance, both adult and child participants observed a group member (like an animated circle) harming a member of another group (like an animated square) by knocking over a stack of blocks. Participants were informed that the act was motivated either by dislike of the group (a discriminatory act: “because I don’t like Squares”) or personal dislike for the individual (“because I don’t like you”).
Each character was given a distinctive name (like “Modi” or “Bosa”) to help children remember who was who throughout the scenario. These names were intentionally chosen to be rare in English, so children wouldn’t relate the characters to people they already knew with similar names.
In another part of the study, researchers manipulated the descriptions of these fictional groups, portraying them in “essentialist” terms (as if their identities were biologically based and unchangeable) versus “temporary” descriptions (like sports teams [“the green team”]).
Overall, findings indicated that children, contrasting with adults, regarded discriminatory acts as less serious than equivalent harmful actions caused by personal motives. Interestingly, while adults acknowledged higher seriousness in discrimination against “essentialized” groups—those akin to gender or race—children did not differentiate between these categories.
In one component of the study, researchers prompted participants to reflect on the “status” of these groups by providing details such as “The Circles always get what they want and the Squares never get what they want” (signifying that “Squares” are the lower-status group), or “Sometimes the Circles get what they want and sometimes the Squares get what they want” (indicating both groups have equal status).
Cimpian and Liu, currently a postdoctoral fellow at University College Dublin, note that many acts of discrimination typically target lower-status groups in society.
Younger children, specifically those under 7 or 8 years, did not distinguish between discriminating against lower-status and equal-status groups. However, children older than 7 or 8 began to acknowledge discrimination as particularly harmful when aimed at lower-status groups.
“It’s crucial to understand how children’s views of discrimination differ from those of adults so we can create strategies to help them recognize and resist such behaviors at an early stage in their development,” concludes Cimpian.
