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Children's implicit attitude acquisition: Evaluative statements succeed, repeated pairings fail.
Tessa E S Charlesworth1, Benedek Kurdi1, Mahzarin R Banaji1
1Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Developmental Science
|October 12, 2019
Summary
Children acquire implicit attitudes through verbal statements, not just repeated pairings. This highlights the early role of language in shaping children's implicit biases.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Implicit attitudes are similar in children and adults, but acquisition methods may differ.
- Understanding how children form implicit attitudes is crucial for early intervention and education.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate children's implicit attitude acquisition using two learning interventions: evaluative statements (ES) and repeated evaluative pairings (REP).
- To compare the effectiveness of ES, REP, and a combination (ES+REP) in forming implicit attitudes in children aged 7-11 years.
Main Methods:
- 280 children (ages 7-11) were exposed to novel social groups via ES, REP, or ES+REP.
- Four variations of REP with increased verbal scaffolding were also tested to assess learning facilitation.
Main Results:
- Children acquired implicit attitudes through ES and ES+REP, but not REP alone.
- REP interventions, even with added verbal scaffolding, did not lead to significant attitude formation.
Conclusions:
- Verbal statements play a significant role in children's implicit attitude acquisition from an early age.
- Children may have age-related limitations in acquiring novel implicit attitudes through associative learning (REP) compared to verbal instruction.
Keywords:
associative learningattitude acquisitionevaluative conditioningimplicit attitudespropositional learningsocial cognitive developmentMore Related Videos
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