Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Aug;208:105150. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105150. Epub 2021 Apr 29.
Children tend to assume that their ingroup members are more likely to share their preferences than outgroup members, but group membership and shared preferences need not be congruent in reality. The current study investigated 76 3- to 6-year-old children's baseline intergroup attitudes in a minimal group context and their subsequent attitudes after being informed that either (a) their ingroup, but not their outgroup, shared their preferences or (b) their outgroup, but not their ingroup, shared their preferences. Cues about shared preferences affected children's intergroup biases to some extent, such that children tended to like their outgroup more and to allocate resources fairly among their ingroup and outgroup when they learned that their outgroup shared their preferences. However, intergroup biases were robust in some measures, such that children reported high ingroup liking and demonstrated ingroup favoritism in behavioral attribution regardless of whether they learned that their ingroup or outgroup shared their preferences. Children were also administered measures tapping into cognitive flexibility, but there was no coherent evidence that children's cognitive flexibility was related to their initial intergroup attitudes or their subsequent intergroup attitudes after learning that their ingroup or outgroup shared their preferences. The current study demonstrates a nuanced picture of intergroup biases, such that these biases might not be entirely entrenched but can nonetheless be robust in the face of conflicting cues about group membership and shared preferences. Furthermore, the importance of investigating intergroup biases at the individual level, rather than only at the group level, is discussed.
儿童倾向于认为他们所在的群体成员比其他群体成员更有可能分享他们的偏好，但在现实中，群体成员和共同偏好不一定一致。本研究在最小群体背景下调查了 76 名 3 至 6 岁儿童的基线群体间态度，以及在得知（a）他们所在的群体而不是他们的群体分享了他们的偏好，或者（b）他们的群体而不是他们的群体分享了他们的偏好后，他们随后的态度。关于共同偏好的线索在一定程度上影响了儿童的群体间偏见，例如，当儿童得知他们的群体分享了他们的偏好时，他们往往更喜欢他们的群体，并在他们的群体和群体之间公平分配资源。然而，群体间偏见在某些方面是很顽固的，例如，儿童报告了很高的群体内喜欢，并在行为归因中表现出群体内偏爱，无论他们是否得知他们的群体或群体分享了他们的偏好。儿童还接受了一些衡量认知灵活性的测试，但没有一致的证据表明儿童的认知灵活性与他们最初的群体间态度或在得知他们的群体或群体分享了他们的偏好后他们的群体间态度有关。本研究描绘了群体间偏见的微妙画面，表明这些偏见可能不是完全根深蒂固的，但在面对关于群体成员和共同偏好的冲突线索时，它们仍然可以很顽固。此外，还讨论了在个体层面而不是仅在群体层面研究群体间偏见的重要性。
