Children's Lay Theories About Ingroups and Outgroups: Reconceptualizing Research on Prejudice

The consensus from the developmental literature examining children's intergroup attitudes has been that children as young as 3 years of age exhibit racial prejudice. We suggest, however, that as much of the developmental research has confounded ingroup positivity and outgroup negativity, it becomes difficult to determine whether young children are displaying ingroup bias or outgroup derogation. Furthermore, it appears that young children are not demonstrating hostility toward outgroups; studies that have separately assessed evaluations toward the ingroup and outgroup demonstrate that rather than evaluating the outgroup negatively, young children are demonstrating a positivity bias toward their ingroup. We propose, therefore, that young children are primarily utilizing a perceptually based lay theory that does not necessitate outgroup derogation. We argue, however, that children's lay theories are subject to social structural conditions and specific social transitions, and hence, can lead to the development of prejudice.