An Age Penalty in Racial Preferences

The authors document an age penalty in racial discrimination: Charitable behavior toward African American children decreases—and negative stereotypical inferences increase—with the age of those children. Using data from an online charity that solicits donations for school projects, the authors found that proposals accompanied by images of older African American students (Grades 6–12) led to fewer donations than proposals with images of younger African Americans (pre-K-Grade 5), with the opposite pattern for proposals with images of multiples races or of all White students. A laboratory experiment demonstrated that negative stereotypical beliefs about African Americans (e.g., that they are lazy) increased with age more for African American children than for White children, a pattern that predicted decreases in giving.