Color bias and racial preference in White South African preschool children

Early experience theory and cultural socialization theory offer differing e xplanations for the emergence of a prowhite/antiblack color bias in young c hildren. The authors assessed prowhite preference to three stimulus types ( inanimate objects, animals, and humans) in 3- and 5-year-old White South Af rican children. The 3-year-olds showed no color bias to objects, some color bias to animal stimuli, and stronger color bias to human (racial) figures, with generally higher levels of bias in the 5-year-olds. These and other f indings are consistent with a cultural socialization approach, implying tha t color bias in early childhood is acquired through verbal learning of huma n color symbolism. It is suggested that a culturally widespread tendency to prefer the color white over black may be a product of society and history rather than of early experiences.