Stereotype knowledge and prejudice in children

The present research applies Devine's (1989) distinction between stereotype knowledge and personal beliefs to the early development of racial bias in young children. The responses of 110 South Australian children (66 girls an d 44 boys) toward white and black stimuli were examined across the 5-6 and 8-9 age groups. Analyses revealed that both age groups were knowledgeable a bout the cultural stereotypes associated with black and white skin colour. Negative adjectives were more strongly endorsed for black stimuli than were positive adjectives (the reverse was true for white stimuli). For 5- to 6- year-olds, knowledge of stereotypes and personal beliefs for black stimuli were highly congruent. In contrast, children aged 8-9 years were significan tly more likely to report personal beliefs which diverged from their knowle dge of pervasive cultural stereotypes, i.e. to endorse negative adjectives as stereotype knowledge rather than personal beliefs. It is tentatively con cluded thar the concordance of personal beliefs and stereotype knowledge fo und among very young children is nor prejudice as typically conceived, but rather a function of their inability to make personal judgments that diverg e from dominant stereotypes. In contrast, older children have an increasing ability to base evaluations on personal beliefs that may be inconsistent w ith collective societal representations of social groups. Various explanati ons accounting for the differentiation between personal beliefs and stereot ype knowledge in older children are discussed.