Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Dev Sci. 2011 Nov;14(6):1283-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01072.x. Epub 2011 Aug 2.
Minority-race children in North America and Europe often show less own-race favoritism than children of the majority (White) race, but the reasons for this asymmetry are unresolved. The present research tested South African children in order to probe the influences of group size, familiarity, and social status on children's race-based social preferences. We assessed South African children's preferences for members of their country's majority race (Blacks) compared to members of other groups, including Whites, who ruled South Africa until 1994 and who remain high in status. Black children (3-13 years) tested in a Black township preferred people of their own gender but not race. Moreover, Black, White, and multiracial children (4-9 years) tested in a racially diverse primary school showed in-group bias by gender but not by race: all favored people who were White. Relative familiarity and numerical majority/minority status therefore do not fully account for children's racial attitudes, which vary with the relative social status of different racial groups.
北美和欧洲的少数族裔儿童对本族裔的偏好往往低于多数族裔（白人）的儿童，但造成这种不对称的原因尚未得到解决。本研究对南非儿童进行了测试，以探究群体规模、熟悉程度和社会地位对儿童基于种族的社会偏好的影响。我们评估了南非儿童对其国家多数族裔（黑人）成员与其他群体成员（包括白人）的偏好，白人曾统治南非直到 1994 年，他们的地位仍然很高。在一个黑人城镇中接受测试的黑人儿童（3-13 岁）更喜欢与自己性别相同的人，而不是与自己种族相同的人。此外，在一个种族多样化的小学接受测试的黑、白和多种族儿童（4-9 岁）表现出了基于性别的群体偏好，但不是基于种族的群体偏好：他们都更喜欢白人。因此，相对熟悉程度和数量上的多数/少数群体地位并不能完全解释儿童的种族态度，因为不同种族群体的相对社会地位不同，儿童的种族态度也会有所不同。
