Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T18:58:20.705Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Is the inherence heuristic needed to understand system-justifying tendencies among children?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

Anna-Kaisa Newheiser
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525. [email protected]://newheiser.socialpsychology.org/[email protected]://depts.washington.edu/uwkids/krolson/
Kristina R. Olson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1525. [email protected]://newheiser.socialpsychology.org/[email protected]://depts.washington.edu/uwkids/krolson/

Abstract

Evidence that children's system-justifying preferences track the extent of group-based status differences is consistent with the inherence heuristic account. However, evidence that children are inferring inherence per se, or that such inferences are the cause of system-justifying preferences, is missing. We note that, until direct evidence of the inherence heuristic is available, alternative models should not be ignored.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

Dunham, Y., Newheiser, A., Hoosain, L., Merrill, A. & Olson, K. R. (2014) From a different vantage: Intergroup attitudes among children from low- and intermediate-status racial groups. Social Cognition 32:121.Google Scholar
Jost, J. T. & Banaji, M. R. (1994) The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology 33:127.Google Scholar
Kay, A. C., Gaucher, D., Peach, J. M., Laurin, K., Friesen, J., Zanna, M. P. & Spencer, S. J. (2009) Inequality, discrimination, and the power of the status quo: Direct evidence for a motivation to see the way things are as the way they should be. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 97:421–34.Google Scholar
Newheiser, A., Dunham, Y., Merrill, A., Hoosain, L. & Olson, K. R. (2014) Preference for high status predicts implicit outgroup bias among children from low-status groups. Developmental Psychology. 50(4):1081–90.Google Scholar
Newheiser, A. & Olson, K. R. (2012) White and Black American children's implicit intergroup bias. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 48:264–70.Google Scholar
Nosek, B. A., Banaji, M. R. & Greenwald, A. G. (2002) Harvesting implicit group attitudes and beliefs from a demonstration web site. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice 6:101–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, K. R., Shutts, K., Kinzler, K. D. & Weisman, K. G. (2012) Children associate racial groups with wealth: Evidence from South Africa. Child Development 83:1884–99.Google Scholar