Children who have heard someone say negative words about a certain group of people have developed negative biases against them, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Child Development.
A group of 121 children between the ages of 4 and 9 were divided into smaller groups, where they heard a child or adult say negative statements about a fictitious group of people called “Flurps” or “Gearoos” or where not they heard nothing negative.
The children were involved in an unrelated activity when an adult in the room opened a pre-recorded video call, as the children indirectly heard either negative messages about one of the two fictional groups or no negative messages.
The negative message that some of the children heard indirectly said: “Those Flurps / Gearoos are really bad people. He eats disgusting food and wears such strange clothes. The Flurps / Gearoos language sounds so ugly. ”
Immediately after the indirect conversation they heard, children over the age of 7 expressed more negative attitudes towards the group compared to children who did not hear any negative messages.
They were interviewed again, on average, two weeks later and still showed negative trends toward those groups, said study author Emily Conder, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Children always try to classify people, Conder said, and at this age, it is normal for children to classify others according to skin color, clothing, and other factors to understand the world around them.
Not all children were negatively influenced
Study participants aged 4 and 5 did not see Flurps or Gearoos in a negative way after hearing the negative words said about these groups.
Conder said he doesn’t know why younger children were not significantly affected, but hypothesized that it could be related to their shorter duration of attention and their ability to pick up information they hear (because it requires more processing). big).
The age of the person who sent the negative messages did not affect the impact it had on the children, which Conder said surprised her.
“I thought that as the children grew up, their attitudes would be more influenced by the other child, but they were equally influenced by the child and the adult in all age groups,” Conder said.
Children are easily influenced by what they hear as they grow and develop, said Maysa Akbar, chief diversity officer of the American Psychological Association, who was not involved in the study.
Akbar said that when children hear negative information about a group, they may “start to see different groups as different and not want to associate with those groups.”
The role of parents in the child’s development
It is important to be aware of the information you tell about your children, even indirectly, Akbar said.
On the other hand, parents can use the findings of this study to positively influence their children to be good allies, according to Akbar.
This may include purchasing various toys for your children, she said, or ensuring that your child has a diverse group of friends.
“The sooner we can normalize situations for our children, the more they will become involved and accept diversity,” Akbar said.
Conder was conducting a related study that would focus on measuring children’s influence when they indirectly hear positive information about a group. He had to stop studying because of last year’s pandemic.
When he was able to resume his studies, Conder said he hoped to achieve similar results in which children were influenced by what they heard indirectly, because that means children could learn how to “form more positive attitudes toward new people.”