Could your baby be racist? This study suggests so...

Studies find infants take cues from adults of their own race, more than others

Researchers have discovered that six- to nine-month-old infants can demonstrate racial bias in favour of members of their own race and against those of other races, reported The Daily Mail. This is said to be a result of exposure to their own kind and experts advice introducing them to people from a variety of races before issues deepen.

Two studies were conducted by researchers at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and their international collaborators that showed racial bias among infants. 'The findings prove racial bias already exists around the second half of a child's first year,” said Dr Kang Lee.

During the first experiment, the team had infants from three to 10 months listen to music and watch videos depicting female adults with neutral facial expressions. Babies participated in one of the four music-face combinations: happy music followed by own-race faces, sad music followed by own-race faces, happy music followed by other-race faces, and sad music followed by other-race faces.



They looked longer at own-race faces with happy music as opposed to with sad music. In contrast, the infants looked longer at other-race faces with sad music.

Researchers then investigated if infants were biased to learn from own-race versus other-race adults. The videos were shown, which presented a female adult that looked at one of the four corners of the screen.

In some of the videos, an animal appeared in the direction the woman was gazing. In others, it appeared at a non-looked-at location. The results showed that the infants followed the gaze of members of their own race, suggesting they’re biased.

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These findings are important because they offer a new perspective on the cause of race-based bias. They also suggest that a race-based bias emerges without experience with other-race individuals.

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