The Development of Stereotyping in Children's Judgments

Lawrence, Jason S, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this Postdoctoral research fellowship research project is to investigate the development of White children's use of the stereotype that Black Americans have low academic ability. Four experiments will be conducted to determine how the ability stereotype influences White children's perceptions and attributions of their Black peer's academic ability. Experiment 1 will test whether White children over 9 years of age judge a Black student as lower in ability than a White student with the same performance. Experiment 2 will determine whether White children of all ages may attribute Black students' academic failures and White students' academic successes to internal factors such as ability. It will also investigate whether White children over 9 years of age explain away Black students' academic successes and White students' academic failures by attributing these performances to external factors such as task difficulty or internal unstable factors such as effort. Experiments 3 and 4, were designed to determine whether White children over 9 years of age incorporate teacher feedback that suggests that a Black student has lower ability than a White student, but ignore teacher feedback that suggests that a Black student has higher ability than a White student.