INTERGROUP BIAS

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Children like to affiliate with social groups based on race, gender, friendship, etc. One of the most important human achievements is our ability to be generous to others, regardless of the categorical membership. However, children from a young age show preference for own-race members and dislike for other-race members. At what point do such own-race preference first emerges?  

One major focus of my research aims to explore the phenomenon of interracial bias and understand how race-based bias or stereotypes acquire and change across development at both implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) levels.  

Another major focus of my research also includes investigating how we might best reduce children’s racial bias against other-race members. So far, I am been focusing on two promising methods to reduce racial bias among early childhood.

1. Individuation training refers to the appreciation for heterogeneity among individuals within an out-race group. It reduces the homogeneity of out-group members and interrupts the automatic tendency to lump those individuals together by their racial category. As a collateral consequence, the automatic association of negative valence with unfamiliar, other-race faces is disrupted, leading to the reduction of implicit racial bias. See the procedure of the individuation training below.