Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:59:29.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What works to address prejudice? Look to developmental science research for the answer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2012

Melanie Killen ,
Kelly Lynn Mulvey ,
Aline Hitti  and
Adam Rutland
Melanie Killen
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. [email protected]@[email protected]
Kelly Lynn Mulvey
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. [email protected]@[email protected]
Aline Hitti
Affiliation:
Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742. [email protected]@[email protected]
Adam Rutland
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, United Kingdom. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Developmental perspectives on prejudice provide a fundamental and important key to the puzzle for determining how to address prejudice. Research with historically disadvantaged and advantaged groups in childhood and adolescence reveals the complexity of social cognitive and moral judgments about prejudice, discrimination, bias, and exclusion. Children are aware of status and hierarchies, and often reject the status quo. Intervention, to be effective, must happen early in development, before prejudice and stereotypes are deeply entrenched.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 6 , December 2012 , pp. 439
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, D. & Rutland, A. (2008) The development of subjective group dynamics. In: Intergroup relations and attitudes in childhood through adulthood, ed. Levy, S. R. & Killen, M., pp. 47–65. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Crystal, D., Killen, M. & Ruck, M. (2008) It's who you know that counts: Intergroup contact and judgments about race-based exclusion. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 26:51–70.Google Scholar
Dunham, Y., Baron, A. S. & Carey, S. (2011) Consequences of “minimal” group affiliations in children. Child Development 82:793–811. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01577.x.Google Scholar
Feddes, A. R., Noack, P. & Rutland, A. (2009) Direct and extended friendship effects on minority and majority children's interethnic attitudes: A longitudinal study. Child Development 80:377–90. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01266.x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Killen, M., Lee-Kim, J., McGlothlin, H. & Stangor, C. (2002) How children and adolescents evaluate gender and racial exclusion. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial No. 271, vol. 67, No. 4. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Killen, M. & Rutland, A. (2011) Children and social exclusion: Morality, prejudice, and group identity. Wiley/Blackwell.Google Scholar
Killen, M., Rutland, A., Abrams, D., Mulvey, K. L. & Hitti, A. (2012) Development of intra- and intergroup judgments in the context of moral and social-conventional norms. Child Development. DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12011.Google Scholar
Levy, S. & Killen, M. (2008) Intergroup attitudes and relations in childhood through adulthood. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nesdale, D. & Lawson, M. J. (2011) Social groups and children's intergroup attitudes: Can school norms moderate the effects of social group norms? Child Development 82:1594–606.Google Scholar
Quintana, S., & McKown, C. (2007) The handbook of race, racism, and the developing child. Wiley.Google Scholar
Smetana, J. G. (2006) Social-cognitive domain theory: Consistencies and variations in children's moral and social judgments. In: Handbook of moral development, ed. Killen, M. & Smetana, J. G., pp. 119–54. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Turiel, E. (1998) The development of morality. In: Handbook of child psychology 5th ed., vol. 3: Social, emotional, and personality development, ed. Damon, W., pp. 863–932. Wiley.Google Scholar
Turiel, E. (2002) The culture of morality: Social development, context, and conflict. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verkuyten, M. (2003) Ethnic in-group bias among minority and majority early adolescents: The perception of negative peer behaviour. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 21: 543–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar