Ns. Woods et al., PYGMALION IN THE CRADLE - OBSERVER BIAS AGAINST COCAINE-EXPOSED INFANTS, Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics, 19(4), 1998, pp. 283-285
This study examined whether the widely disseminated negative image of
the ''cocaine baby'' would lead adults to perceive a videotaped unexpo
sed infant more negatively simply because they had been told the infan
t was prenatally cocaine-exposed. Two hundred and forty-nine students
from three state universities used a seven-point Likert scale to rate
either an African-American or a white female infant on 20 bipolar adje
ctive-pairs. As predicted, participants who observed a labeled infant
rated her more negatively than did those for whom the infant had not b
een labeled as cocaine-exposed. The potentially negative consequences
of this documented bias toward cocaine-exposed infants should both ale
rt and concern professionals and researchers. If adults view the behav
ior of a nonexposed infant more negatively merely because they believe
that the infant has been exposed, then parents (biological and adopti
ve), professionals, and researchers may view and respond to the behavi
or of infants who are cocaine-exposed more negatively. Transactional m
odels of development suggest a potential for self-fulfilling prophecy.