Abstract
The implicit association test (IAT) of racial bias in adults measures the association between visual categories of race and positive/negative attributes/concepts/objects (Greenwald, Nosek, & Banaji, 2003). Mostexisting child-friendly versions of the IAT use auditory recordings of positive/negative words for use with preliterate children, or a happy and an angry emoji in lieu of positive and negative categories. We created a child-friendly IAT that more closely mimics the adult version by using pictures of “nice”/“not-sonice” categories of attributes/concepts/objects. We also examined whether racial contact is associated with implicit racial biases in children and adults. Caucasian young adults and 5- to 10-year-olds completed our computerized child-friendly IAT. Participants were trained to categorize a) “nice” (e.g., flower, laughing emoji, rainbow, etc.) and “not-so-nice” (e.g., wilted flower, angry emoji, rain cloud with rain, etc.) pictures, and b) Caucasian and East Asian faces by race. Participants were then asked to use the same button to respond to a) Caucasian faces paired with “nice” pictures and b) East Asian faces paired with “nice” pictures (order counterbalanced across participants). Adult participants and parents of child participants reported contact with Caucasians and East Asians. Preliminary results revealed that adults showed implicit own-race biases (p < .01), whereas children showed no racial biases (p > .20). Both the adult and child age groups showed greater contact with own-race Caucasians than with other-race Asians(p values < .001), but these were not related to implicit racial biases (p values > .20). Our findings stand in contrast to previous reports of implicit racial biases during early childhood (Baron & Banaji, 2006; Qian et al., 2016), but is likely driven by our participants’ multiracial experiences with Caribbean/Black/Hispanic individuals despite their limited experiences with East Asians. Our results allude to a delayed emergence of implicit racial biases in children in multicultural areas.