Children can learn bias even through non-verbal signals displayed by adults, such as a condescending tone of voice or a disapproving look, a new study has found.
Researchers from the University of Washington (UW) in the US found that children can "catch" social bias by seeing negative signals expressed by adults and are likely to generalise that learned bias to others.
"This research shows that kids are learning bias from the non-verbal signals that they are exposed to and that this could be a mechanism for the creation of racial bias and other biases that we have in our society," said Allison Skinner from UW.
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"Kids are picking up on more than we think they are, and you don't have to tell them that one group is better than another group for them to be getting that message from how we act," said Skinner.
The research involved an initial group of 67 children ages four and five, an equal mix of boys and girls.
The children were shown a video in which two different female actors displayed positive signals to one woman and negative signals to another woman.
All people in the video were the same race, to avoid the possibility of racial bias factoring into the results.
The actors greeted both women the same way and did the same activities with both (for example, giving each a toy) but the actor's non-verbal signals differed when interacting with one woman versus the other.
The actor spoke to one woman in a positive way - smiling, leaning toward her, using a warm tone of voice - and the other negatively, by scowling, leaning away and speaking in a cold tone.
The children were then asked a series of questions - such as who they liked the best and who they wanted to share a toy with - intended to gauge whether they favoured the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the recipient of negative nonverbal signals.
The results showed a consistent pattern of children favouring the recipient of positive nonverbal signals.
Overall, 67 per cent of children favoured the recipient of positive nonverbal signals over the other woman - suggesting they were influenced by the bias shown by the actor.
Researchers also wondered if nonverbal signals could lead to group bias or prejudice.
To get at that question, they recruited an additional 81 children ages four and five. The children were shown the same videos from the previous study, then a researcher introduced them to the "best friends" of the people in the video.
The "friends" were described as members of the same group, with each wearing the same colour shirt as their friend. The children were then asked questions to assess whether they favoured one friend over the other.
The results showed that children favoured the friend of the recipient of positive non-verbal signals over the friend of the other woman.
The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.
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