Walter Traprock
2006-02-19 23:20:51 UTC
http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/060212_racefrm2.htm
Race matters to 3-month-olds, studies find
Feb. 12, 2006
Special to World Science
You should judge someone not by the color of his skin, civil-rights
leader Martin Luther King declared 43 years ago, but by the content of
his character.
Yet new research suggests that to achieve this ideal, you may have
unlearn years¹ worth of mental habitsa daunting number of years. Such
as your current age, minus three months.
Babies often develop a preference for faces of members of their own race
by the age of three months, a study has found.
That¹s because new studies have found that by this agethree monthsmany
babies start to prefer faces of people from their own race to those of
another race. This early favoritism may represent the first glimmers of
racial prejudice, psychologists say.
But don¹t start fretting about racist babies yet. On the bright side,
researchers also found that babies raised with frequent exposure to
people of other races don¹t develop this early bias. This discovery may
help guide future research on how to counter racism, they suggested.
³Early preferences for own-race faces may contribute to race-related
biases later in life,² psychologists wrote in a paper on a study
published in the February issue of the research journal Psychological
Science. Typically, ³by the age of 4 to 6 years, children already
display racial stereotyping and prejudice in a variety of contexts.²
Two separate teams have published findings that three-month-old babies
prefer faces of their own race: David J. Kelly of the University of
Sheffield, U.K., and colleagues, whose findings appear in the November
issue of the journal Developmental Science; and Yair Bar-Haim of
Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues, authors of the
Psychological Science report.
Bar-Haim¹s team studied 36 infants from three groups: white babies
raised among mainly white people in Israel; black infants similarly
raised among their own people, in Africa; and black babies raised in a
mixed black-and-white environment.
The researchers sat each baby on its mother¹s lap and in front of a
computer screen. Some clicking sounds and visual effects then appeared
on the screens to draw the infants¹ attention. Next, eight pairs of
photos of black and white faces appeared onscreen, side by side, in
succession.
The researchers analyzed whether the babies spent more time looking at
the white or black faces. This is a standard sort of psychology test,
they wrote; psychologists generally believe longer gazes at one face
indicate preference for it. The researchers tried to match faces in
each pair for attractiveness, so that this wouldn¹t sway the young
participants¹ preferences.
White babies raised in white environments spent an average of 63 percent
more time looking at white faces, the study found. Their African-raised
counterparts spent 23 percent more time looking at faces from their own
race than the other. Black babies raised in mixed-race environments
spent roughly equal amounts of time looking at both types.
This suggests that ³significant exposure to other-race faces can block
the development of own-race preference,² Bar-Haim and colleagues wrote.
Kelly¹s team found the preference for own-race faces doesn¹t exist at
one month of age, so it is not innate, they noted. They conducted a
study similar to Bar-Haim¹s, but tested only white babies, viewing
photos of four different ethnic groups, at the ages of one and three
months.
Many researchers in recent years have been interested in how racial
prejudice develops, and even whether it might have evolutionary
functions. Some have suggested prejudice may actually have been useful
for primitive humans, by motivating them to protect their tribes from
ill-intentioned strangers. ³It was adaptive for our ancestors to be
attuned to those outside the group who posed threats,² said Arizona
State University social psychologist Steven Neuberg last year.
Unfortunately, he added, prejudice can also be turned against people who
pose no threat. Today, mainstream Western societies tend to consider
prejudice an unmitigated evil, a cause of social strife, injustice, and
evensome studies have foundhealth problems, possibly caused by the
continual stress of living on racism¹s receiving end.
Research such as the baby study could help scientists understand ways to
reduce racism, Bar-Heim¹s team contends. For instance, they wrote, a key
goal for future research would be to demark ³the critical period during
which early-formed preferences for own-race faces may be altered by
exposure to other-race faces.²
Race matters to 3-month-olds, studies find
Feb. 12, 2006
Special to World Science
You should judge someone not by the color of his skin, civil-rights
leader Martin Luther King declared 43 years ago, but by the content of
his character.
Yet new research suggests that to achieve this ideal, you may have
unlearn years¹ worth of mental habitsa daunting number of years. Such
as your current age, minus three months.
Babies often develop a preference for faces of members of their own race
by the age of three months, a study has found.
That¹s because new studies have found that by this agethree monthsmany
babies start to prefer faces of people from their own race to those of
another race. This early favoritism may represent the first glimmers of
racial prejudice, psychologists say.
But don¹t start fretting about racist babies yet. On the bright side,
researchers also found that babies raised with frequent exposure to
people of other races don¹t develop this early bias. This discovery may
help guide future research on how to counter racism, they suggested.
³Early preferences for own-race faces may contribute to race-related
biases later in life,² psychologists wrote in a paper on a study
published in the February issue of the research journal Psychological
Science. Typically, ³by the age of 4 to 6 years, children already
display racial stereotyping and prejudice in a variety of contexts.²
Two separate teams have published findings that three-month-old babies
prefer faces of their own race: David J. Kelly of the University of
Sheffield, U.K., and colleagues, whose findings appear in the November
issue of the journal Developmental Science; and Yair Bar-Haim of
Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues, authors of the
Psychological Science report.
Bar-Haim¹s team studied 36 infants from three groups: white babies
raised among mainly white people in Israel; black infants similarly
raised among their own people, in Africa; and black babies raised in a
mixed black-and-white environment.
The researchers sat each baby on its mother¹s lap and in front of a
computer screen. Some clicking sounds and visual effects then appeared
on the screens to draw the infants¹ attention. Next, eight pairs of
photos of black and white faces appeared onscreen, side by side, in
succession.
The researchers analyzed whether the babies spent more time looking at
the white or black faces. This is a standard sort of psychology test,
they wrote; psychologists generally believe longer gazes at one face
indicate preference for it. The researchers tried to match faces in
each pair for attractiveness, so that this wouldn¹t sway the young
participants¹ preferences.
White babies raised in white environments spent an average of 63 percent
more time looking at white faces, the study found. Their African-raised
counterparts spent 23 percent more time looking at faces from their own
race than the other. Black babies raised in mixed-race environments
spent roughly equal amounts of time looking at both types.
This suggests that ³significant exposure to other-race faces can block
the development of own-race preference,² Bar-Haim and colleagues wrote.
Kelly¹s team found the preference for own-race faces doesn¹t exist at
one month of age, so it is not innate, they noted. They conducted a
study similar to Bar-Haim¹s, but tested only white babies, viewing
photos of four different ethnic groups, at the ages of one and three
months.
Many researchers in recent years have been interested in how racial
prejudice develops, and even whether it might have evolutionary
functions. Some have suggested prejudice may actually have been useful
for primitive humans, by motivating them to protect their tribes from
ill-intentioned strangers. ³It was adaptive for our ancestors to be
attuned to those outside the group who posed threats,² said Arizona
State University social psychologist Steven Neuberg last year.
Unfortunately, he added, prejudice can also be turned against people who
pose no threat. Today, mainstream Western societies tend to consider
prejudice an unmitigated evil, a cause of social strife, injustice, and
evensome studies have foundhealth problems, possibly caused by the
continual stress of living on racism¹s receiving end.
Research such as the baby study could help scientists understand ways to
reduce racism, Bar-Heim¹s team contends. For instance, they wrote, a key
goal for future research would be to demark ³the critical period during
which early-formed preferences for own-race faces may be altered by
exposure to other-race faces.²