Running head: REDUCING CHILDREN’S IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS 1 Reducing Children’s Implicit Racial Bias through Exposure to Positive Outgroup Exemplars

Studies with adults suggest that implicit preferences favoring White versus Black individuals can be reduced through exposure to positive Black exemplars. However, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for these biases to be changed. In the current study we examined whether White and Asian children’s implicit racial bias would be reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars, and whether this would be moderated by age. We found evidence that children’s implicit pro-White bias was reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars, but only for older children (Mage=~10-years). Younger children’s (Mage =~7-years) implicit bias was not affected by this intervention. These results suggest developmental differences in the malleability of implicit racial biases and point to possible age differences in intervention effectiveness. REDUCING CHILDREN’S IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS 3 Reducing Children’s Implicit Racial Bias through Exposure to Positive Outgroup Exemplars The widespread protests following the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Gardner, Andrew Loku, Trayvon Martin, Walter Scott and other unarmed Black men killed by police officers serve as a stark reminder of the continued perception and experience of racial bias in North America. Indeed, research suggests that the media are fraught with negative stereotypes associating Blacks with violence, and this biased exposure contributes to ongoing prejudice against Black individuals (Dixon, 2008; Dixon & Linz, 2000; Fujioka, 1999; Mastro & Greenberg, 2000; Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2015). For example, when non-Black participants were exposed to news stories about Black criminals, they were more inclined to shoot a Black target, as opposed to White criminals and White targets, in a computerized shooter task (Correll, Park, Judd & Wittenbrink, 2007). Conceptually similar studies have shown that stereotypes associating Blacks with violence are related to higher rates of shooting Black targets in the shooter task (Correll, Park, Judd & Wittenbrink, 2002; Correll et al., 2011; Eberhardt, Goff, Purdies & Davies, 2004). Together, these studies highlight the relationship between media exposure, implicit racial bias, and overt behavior. Although implicit racial bias is only one of a number of factors that can contribute to the prevalence of prejudice directed against Black-Americans, the broad influence of implicit bias on behavior in a number of domains (e.g., gender, consumer and political preference, alcohol and drug use, etc.; Greenwald et al., 2009) underscores the need to understand how best to reduce such deleterious attitudes, with a specific focus on those attitudes that are directly linked to discriminatory behavior toward culturally stigmatized groups. To date, a number of studies have demonstrated that implicit intergroup biases can be successfully reduced in adults (Lai, et al., REDUCING CHILDREN’S IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS 4 2014). For instance, researchers have found that interventions that promote direct (e.g., personal contact with out-group members) and indirect (e.g., reading information about counterstereotypical exemplars) contact can reduce intergroup bias (Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001; Foroni & Mayr, 2005; Gonsalkorale et al., 2010; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006). Unfortunately, the magnitude of implicit bias reduction is relatively small among adult samples, suggesting that adulthood might not be the optimal period in development to reduce implicit biases (Baron, 2015). Implicit Bias in Childhood The results of multiple studies with children suggest that implicit preferences for highstatus racial groups (e.g., White) over lower status groups (e.g., Black) emerge early in childhood at levels that remain stable across development (Baron, 2015; Baron & Banaji, 2006, 2009; Dunham, Chen, & Banaji, 2013; Newheiser & Olson, 2012; Rutland et al., 2005). Further, research also suggests that these biases are stronger in ethnically homogenous communities (McGlothlin & Killen, 2006). However, the developmental invariance of implicit biases does not necessarily mean that these biases are equally amenable (or resistant) to change across development (Baron, 2015). Specifically, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist with respect to the capacity to reduce implicit racial bias. In the present study, we examined whether there are developmental differences in the capacity to reduce implicit racial bias through exposure to positive outgroup exemplars. On the one hand, implicit bias might be most amenable to change during early childhood when such cognitions initially form and before they have been extensively reinforced through experience (Devine, 1989; Greenwald & Banaji, 1995, Rudman, 2004). Studies have shown that novel biases, though difficult to reverse, can be reduced significantly immediately following REDUCING CHILDREN’S IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS 5 their initial formation (Gregg et al., 2006). There is robust evidence that children have acquired implicit racial bias by age five (Baron, 2015; Dunham, Baron, & Banaji, 2008), and according to this view, age five or earlier might be the optimal period to shape the magnitude of these attitudes. On the other hand, based on evidence from social cognitive development research, it is plausible that implicit bias might be more amenable to change among older children. Research suggests that cognitive flexibility increases with age (Aboud, 2005; Aboud & Amato, 2001; Bigler & Liben, 2006), and this mechanism might better allow older (as compared to younger) children to shift their evaluations of a racial group after being presented with counterstereotypical information about that group (Lai et al., 2014). Furthermore, in contrast to younger children (5-7 years), older children (8-10 years) from majority groups have lower explicit prejudice against outgroups, potentially due to motivational processes (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011). Thus, older children might be more capable of integrating counter-stereotypical information with their prior beliefs about people who are Black. As noted earlier, although implicit biases can be reduced among adults, the magnitude of change is generally quite small. Despite the fact that cognitive flexibility continues developing into adulthood, implicit biases might be more easily reduced in older children than in their adult counterparts because they have received comparatively less reinforcement of the prevailing cultural attitudes about social groups. The Current Study In the current study we investigated (a) whether children’s implicit racial attitudes can be reduced, and (b) if developmental differences exist in the capacity to reduce implicit racial bias among children. To address these questions, we adopted an intervention method that has been REDUCING CHILDREN’S IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS 6 used successfully to reduce implicit bias among adult populations (Dasgupta & Greenwald, 2001; Foroni & Mayr, 2005; Gonsalkorale et al., 2010; Lai et al., 2014) as well as explicit bias among similarly aged children (Baron, Dunham, Banaji, & Carey, 2014): Exposure to counterstereotypical exemplars. Through the use of vignettes, our method exposed participants to Black individuals who were represented in a very positive framea depiction that contrasts with the larger cultural messages that contribute to the stigmatization of Blacks in North America (Fujioka, 1999; Mastro & Greenbarg, 2000; Eberhardt, Goff, Purdies & Davies, 2004). We used this method to examine whether a brief exposure to vignettes depicting positive Black exemplars, as compared to either positive White exemplars or, in our main control condition, flowers, would reduce implicit racial bias among children. Our study only included children of Caucasian and Asian ethnicity, two groups that display a clear implicit bias for White individuals over Black individuals (Dunham, Baron & Banaji, 2006) and who represent the culturally higher status groups in our community. As there is a dearth of research on potential developmental differences in the malleability of implicit associations, we compared the effectiveness of our intervention in younger (early to middle childhood) and older (late childhood to early adolescence) childrengroups that differ substantially on a variety of measures of cognitive flexibility and executive control (Zelazo, Carlson & Kesek, 2008). Our study had a 2 (Age group: Younger or Older) x 3 (Condition: Black, Flowers, White) x 2 (Ethnic group: Caucasian or Asian) design. Method Participants A total of 369 White and Asian children between 5-12 years (184 males and 185 females, Mage=8.61 years, SD=1.61) were recruited from a community based science center in 2013-2014, REDUCING CHILDREN’S IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS 7 and were tested onsite in a soundproof room dedicated for behavioral science research. Six of these children were excluded from our analyses due to a profound language barrier (N=1), experimenter error (N=2), technical difficulties (N=2) or parent interference (N=1). An additional 33 children were recruited but excluded as they chose not to complete the study. After these exclusions, as well as four IAT exclusions detailed in the results section, our final sample consisted of a total of 359 participants, 257 who identified as Caucasian and 102 who identified as Asian. Our testing area at the science center was set up as an exhibit, and parents were able to come into our lab space if they were interested in having their child participate in a study. Research assistants also recruited by walking around the science center floor and telling parents about our research. Participants were recruited from a population with a median income of $75,000. Approximately 85% of parents in this population have received a high school education or higher, and 57% have received a university education or higher. We aimed to collect data from 120 participants in each condition, distributed across the age range. However, due to constraints of our testing location, we ran more children than intended as it is policy at the science center that any child who wishes to participate be allowed to (provided parents provide consent). Children who were outside of our a priori range of 5-12 years were excluded from the sample, as were children who were not members of one of the majority (and culturally higher status) groups in Vancouver (either White or Asian, Statistics Canada, 2006). Parents or a legal guardian of each participant were asked to report their child’s ethnic identification and other demographic information after providing informed consent for their child’s participation.