U.S. Adults Believe That "Children" Are Color-Evasive and "Black Children" Process Race Early

Across five pre-registered studies (three main text, two supplement, one single-paper meta-analysis; N_total = 5,051), we test how adults' beliefs about children's engagement with race are shaped by children's specified race. We argue that specifying a child's race activates race-specific considerations that disrupt adults' default assumption that "children" (in generic terms) do not notice race or racial differences. As a result, adults perceive both Black children and White children as significantly more likely to notice race than "children." We also argue that the particular racial group specified shapes adults' perceptions of when race-related capacities develop. This causes adults to perceive Black children as developing race-related capacities earlier than both White children and "children." We connect these effects to differences in the timing and content of adult-child conversations about race and racism, showing that how adults construe children can change when and how they talk with them about race.