Learning to control ethnic intergroup bias in childhood

The aim of this research was to identify what factors deter explicit intergroup bias in childhood. Two studies were conducted to examine what facilitates the control of ethnic bias amongst 6–9-year-old majority children. In both studies in-group accountability was either low (i.e., only accountable to experimenter) or high (i.e., also accountable to classmates and teachers). Study 1 (n = 287) found that only 8–9-year-old with low social emotions reduced their bias with increased accountability. Study 2 (n = 236) showed children with low “Theory of Social Mind” (ToSM: Abrams, Rutland, Ferrell, & Pelletier, 2009), who perceived an anti-prejudice in-group norm, decreased their bias when accountability increased. In both studies children high in social emotion and ToSM showed low bias irrespective of accountability. Together these studies make a novel contribution by showing for the first time affective and social-cognitive factors that influence how children learn to control explicit bias.