We argue that prejudice should be investigated in the context of social-cognitive development and the interplay between morality and group identity. Our new perspective examines how children consider group identity (and group norms) along with their developing moral beliefs about fairness and justice. This is achieved by developing an integrated framework drawing on developmental and social psychological theories of prejudice. This synthesis results in a perspective that provides a more contextualized analysis of prejudice development than that previously offered by developmental theories. We describe research that supports our view that social norms, intergroup contact, and perceived outgroup threat affect the relative weight children place on moral and group-based criteria during the development of prejudice.
AboudF.E. (2008). A social-cognitive developmental theory of prejudice. In QuintanaS.M.McKownC. (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (pp. 55–71). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
2.
AboudF.E.LevyS.R. (2000). Interventions to reduce prejudice and discrimination in children and adolescents. In OskampS. (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 269–293). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
3.
AbramsD.BrownR.J. (1989). Self-consciousness and social identity: Self-regulation as a group member. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52, 311–318.
4.
AbramsD.HoggM.A. (1999). Social identity and social cognition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell.
5.
AbramsD.HoggM.A. (2001). Collective self. In HoggM.A.TindaleS. (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Vol. 3. Group processes (pp. 425–461). Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell.
6.
AbramsD.HoggM.A.MarquesJ.M. (2005). The social psychology of inclusion and exclusion. New York: Psychology Press.
7.
AbramsD.RutlandA. (2008). The development of subjective group dynamics. In LevyS.KillenM. (Eds.), Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood (pp. 47–65). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
8.
AbramsD.RutlandA.CameronL. (2003). The development of subjective group dynamics: Children’s judgments of normative and deviant in-group and out-group individuals. Child Development, 74, 1840–1856.
9.
AbramsD.RutlandA.CameronL.FerrellJ. M. (2007). Older but wilier: Ingroup accountability and the development of subjective group dynamics. Developmental Psychology, 43, 134–148.
10.
AbramsD.RutlandA.FerrellJ.M.PelletierJ. (2008). Children’s judgments of disloyal and immoral peer behavior: Subjective group dynamics in minimal intergroup contexts. Child Development, 79, 444–461.
11.
AbramsD.RutlandA.PelletierJ.FerrellJ. (2009). Children’s group nous: Understanding and applying peer exclusion within and between groups. Child Development, 80, 224–243.
12.
AllportG.W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. New York: Doubleday Anchor.
13.
BaronA.S.BanajiM.R. (2006). The development of implicit attitudes. Psychological Science, 17, 53–58.
14.
Bar-TalD.TeichmanY. (2005). Stereotypes and prejudice in conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish society. New York: Cambridge University Press.
15.
BennettM.LyonsE.SaniF.BarrettM. (1998). Children’s subjective identification with the group and in-group favoritism. Developmental Psychology, 34, 902–909.
16.
BiglerR.S.LibenL.S. (2006). A developmental intergroup theory of social stereotypes and prejudice. Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 34, 39–89.
17.
BiglerR.S.LibenL.S. (2007). Developmental intergroup theory: Explaining and reducing children’s social stereotyping and prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 162–166.
18.
BrewerM.B. (1999). The psychology of prejudice: Ingroup love or outgroup hate?Journal of Social Issues, 55, 429–444.
19.
BrownR. (1995). Prejudice: Its social psychology. Oxford, United Kingdom: Blackwell.
20.
CairnsE. (1989). Social identity and inter-group conflicts in Northern Ireland: A developmental perspective. In HarbisonJ. (Ed.), Growing up in Northern Ireland (pp. 115–130). Belfast, Ireland: Stranmillis College.
21.
CameronL.RutlandA. (2006). Extended contact through story reading in school: Reducing children’s prejudice towards the disabled. Journal of Social Issues, 62, 469–488.
22.
CameronL.RutlandA. (2008). An integrative approach to changing children’s intergroup attitudes. In LevyS.KillenM. (Eds.), Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood (pp. 191–203). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
23.
CameronL.RutlandA.BrownR.J. (2007). Promoting children’s positive intergroup attitudes towards stigmatized groups: Extended contact and multiple classification skills training. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 454–466.
24.
CameronL.RutlandA.BrownR.J.DouchR. (2006). Changing children’s intergroup attitudes toward refugees: Testing different models of extended contact. Child Development, 77, 1208–1219.
25.
CrystalD.S.KillenM.RuckM. (2008). It is who you know that counts: Intergroup contact and judgments about race-based exclusion. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 26, 51–70.
26.
DovidioJ.F.GaertnerS.L. (1998). On the nature of contemporary prejudice: The causes, consequences, and challenges of aversive racism. In EberhardtJ.FiskeS.T. (Eds.), Confronting racism: The problem and the response (pp. 3–32). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
27.
DovidioJ.F.GaertnerS.L. (2006). A multilevel perspective on prejudice: Crossing disciplinary boundaries. In Van LangeP.A.M. (Ed.), Bridging social psychology: Benefits of transdisciplinary approaches (pp. 385–390). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
28.
DovidioJ.F.GlickP.RudmanL.A. (2005). On the nature of prejudice: Fifty years after Allport. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
29.
EdmondsC.KillenM. (2009). Do adolescents’ perceptions of parental racial attitudes relate to their intergroup contact and cross-race relationships?Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 12, 5–21.
30.
FeddesA.R.NoackP.RutlandA. (2009). Direct and extended friendship effects on minority and majority children’s interethnic attitudes: A longitudinal study. Child Development, 80, 377–390.
31.
FitzRoyS.RutlandA. (in press). Learning to control ethnic intergroup bias in childhood. European Journal of Social Psychology,
32.
GreenwaldA.G.BanajiM.R. (1995). Implicit social cognition: Attitudes, self-esteem, and stereotypes. Psychological Review, 102, 4–27.
33.
GreenwaldA.G.McGheeD.E.SchwartzJ.L.K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464–1480.
34.
HaidtJ. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814–834.
35.
HornS.S. (2003). Adolescents’ reasoning about exclusion from social groups. Developmental Psychology, 39, 71–84.
36.
HornS.S. (2006). Group status, group bias, and adolescents’ reasoning about the treatment of others in school contexts. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30, 208–218.
37.
HornS.S. (2008). The multifaceted nature of sexual prejudice: How adolescents reason about sexual orientation and sexual prejudice. In LevyS.KillenM. (Eds.), Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood (pp. 173–190). Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
38.
KeilF. (2006). Cognitive science and cognitive development. In DamonW. (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (pp. 609–635). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
39.
KennedyR. (2003). Interracial intimacies: Sex, marriage, identity, and adoptions. New York: Pantheon Books.
40.
KillenM. (2007). Children’s social and moral reasoning about exclusion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 32–36.
41.
KillenM.HenningA.KellyM.C.CrystalD.RuckM. (2007). Evaluations of interracial peer encounters by majority and minority U.S. children and adolescents. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 31, 491–500.
42.
KillenM.KellyM.RichardsonC.CrystalD.RuckM. (in press). European-American children’s and adolescents’ evaluations of interracial exclusion. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations,
43.
KillenM.Lee-KimJ.McGlothlinH.StangorC. (2002). How children and adolescents evaluate gender and racial exclusion. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 67(4):
44.
KillenM.MargieN.G.SinnoS. (2006). Morality in the context of intergroup relationships. In KillenM.SmetanaJ.G. (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 155–183). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
45.
KillenM.PisacaneK.Lee-KimJ.Ardila-ReyA. (2001). Fairness or stereotypes? Young children’s priorities when evaluating group exclusion and inclusion. Developmental Psychology, 37, 587–596.
46.
KillenM.RutlandA.JampolN. (2008). Social exclusion in middle childhood and early adolescence. In RubinK.H.BukowskiW.LaurensonB. (Eds.), Handbook of peer interactions, relationships and groups. (pp. 249–266). New York: Guilford.
47.
KillenM.SmetanaJ.G. (2006). Handbook of moral development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
48.
KillenM.StangorC. (2001). Children’s social reasoning about inclusion and exclusion in gender and race peer group contexts. Child Development, 72, 174–186.
49.
KillenM.StangorC.HornS.SechristG. B. (2004). Social reasoning about racial exclusion in intimate and nonintimate relationships. Youth & Society, 35, 293–322.
50.
KohlbergL. (1971). From is to ought: How to commit the naturalistic fallacy and get away with it in the study of moral development. In MischelT. (Ed.), Psychology and Genetic Epistemology (pp. 151–235). New York: Academic Press.
51.
KohlbergL. (1984). Essays on moral development: Vol. 2. The psychology of moral development—The nature and validity of moral stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
52.
LambertA.J.PayneB.K.JacobyL.L.ShafferL.M.ChasteenA.L. (2003). Stereotypes as dominant responses: On the “Social Facilitation” of prejudice in anticipated public contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 277–294.
53.
McGlothlinH.KillenM. (2005). Children’s perceptions of intergroup and intragroup similarity and the role of social experience. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 680–698.
54.
McGlothlinH.KillenM. (2006). Intergroup attitudes of European American children attending ethnically homogeneous schools. Child Development, 77, 1375–1386.
55.
McGlothlinH.KillenM.EdmondsC. (2005). European-American children’s intergroup attitudes about peer relationships. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23, 227–249.
56.
NesdaleD. (2008). Social identity development and children’s ethnic attitudes in Australia. In QuintanaS.McKownC. (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (pp. 313–338). New York: Wiley.
57.
NesdaleD.DurkinK.MaassA.GriffithsJ. (2005a). Group norms, threat, and children’s racial prejudice. Child Development, 76, 652–663.
58.
NesdaleD.DurkinK.MaassA.GriffithJ. (2005b). Threat, group identification, and children’s ethnic prejudice. Social Development, 14, 189–205.
59.
NussbaumM. (2001). Women and human development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
60.
OnufP. S. (2007). The mind of Thomas Jefferson. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
61.
Page-GouldE.Mendoza-DentonR.AlegreJ.M.SiyJ.O. (in press). Understanding the impact of cross-group friendship on interactions with novel outgroup members. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,
62.
PettigrewT.F.TroppL.R. (2006). A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 90, 751–783.
63.
PfeiferJ.H.RubleD.N.BachmanM.A.AlvarezJ.M.CameronJ.A.FuligniA.J. (2007). Social identities and intergroup bias in immigrant and nonimmigrant children. Developmental Psychology, 43, 496–507.
64.
PhinneyJ.S.CantuC.L.KurtzD.A. (1997). Ethnic and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among American, Latino, and White adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 165–185.
65.
PiagetJ. (1932). The moral judgment of the child. New York: Free Press.
66.
PiagetJ. (1952). The origins of intelligence in children. New York: International Universities Press.
67.
RutlandA. (1999). The development of national prejudice, ingroup favouritism and self stereotypes in British children. British Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 55–70.
68.
RutlandA. (2004). The development and self-regulation of intergroup attitudes in children. In BennettM.SaniF. (Eds.), The development of the social self (pp. 247–265). East Sussex, England: Psychology Press.
69.
RutlandA.BrownR.J.CameronL.AhmavaaraA.ArnoldK.SamsonJ. (2007). Development of the positive-negative asymmetry effect: In-group exclusion norm as a mediator of children’s evaluations on negative attributions. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 171–190.
70.
RutlandA.CameronL.BennettL.FerrellJ.M. (2005). Interracial contact and racial constancy: A multi-site study of racial intergroup bias in 3–5 year old Anglo-British children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 699–713.
71.
RutlandA.CameronL.MilneA.McGeorgeP. (2005). Social norms and self-presentation: Children’s implicit and explicit intergroup attitudes. Child Development, 76, 451–466.
72.
RutlandA.CinnirellaM. (2000). Context effects on Scottish national and European self-categorization: The importance of category accessibility, fragility and relations. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 495–519.
73.
SelmanR. (1980). The growth of interpersonal understanding: Developmental and clinical analyses. New York: Academic Press.
74.
SmetanaJ.G. (2006). Social-cognitive domain theory: Consistencies and variations in children’s moral and social judgments. In KillenM.SmetanaJ.G. (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (pp. 119–154). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
75.
TajfelH.TurnerJ.C. (1986). The social identity theory of inter-group behavior. In WorchelS.AustinW. (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago: Nelson Hall.
76.
TeichmanY. (2001). The development of Israeli children’s images of Jews and Arabs and their expression in human figure drawings. Developmental Psychology, 37, 749–761.
77.
TheimerC.E.KillenM.StangorC. (2001). Preschool children’s evaluations of exclusion in gender-stereotypic contexts. Developmental Psychology, 37, 1–10.
78.
TurielE. (1983). The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
79.
TurielE. (1998). The development of morality. In DamonW.EisenbergN. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional and personality development (5th ed., pp. 863–932).
New York: Wiley.
80.
TurielE. (2006). The development of morality. In WilliamD. (Series Ed.) EisenbergN. (Vol. ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 789–857). New York: Wiley.
81.
TurnerR.N.VociA.HewstoneM. (2007). Reducing explicit and implicit outgroup prejudice via direct and extended contact: The mediating role of self-disclosure and intergroup anxiety. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 93, 369–388.
82.
VerkuytenM. (2001). National identification and intergroup evaluations in Dutch children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 19, 559.
83.
VerkuytenM. (2002). Ethnic attitudes among minority and majority children: The role of ethnic identification, peer group victimization and parents. Social Development, 11, 558–570.
84.
VerkuytenM.SlooterL. (2008). Muslim and non-Muslim adolescents’ reasoning about freedom of speech and minority rights. Child Development, 79, 514–528.
85.
WittenbrinkB.JuddC.M.ParkB. (2001). Spontaneous prejudice in context: Variability in automatically activated attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 815–827.
86.
WrightS.C.AronA.McLaughlin-VolpeT.RoppS.A. (1997). The extended contact effect: Knowledge of cross-group friendships and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 73–90.
