PostDoctoral Research Fellowship

Lawrence, Jason S, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship in the Behavioral and Social Sciences is to determine the developmental processes involved in White children's knowledge and use of the stereotype that alleges Black Americans have low academic ability. Four experiments will be conducted to determine how the 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. However, to allow us to tease apart whether participants' judgments are due to stereotyping or due to ingroup bias, the participants will also make judgments of basketball shooting ability of Black, Asian, and White American children. 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. As in experiment, participants will make the same kinds of judgments of Black, Asian, and White Americans' basketball shooting ability. 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.