Children's Expectations for Intergroup Encounters and Pathways to Reducing Bias

Abstract

From an early age, children identify with social groups and develop preferences for their ingroups, which shape how they navigate social interactions. While these tendencies are developmentally typical, they also contribute to exclusion and reinforce social hierarchies. However, beyond group identification, children's intergroup expectations and behaviors are shaped by broader social contextual factors. This dissertation examines how group norms, social status, and moral reasoning shape children's expectations about intergroup encounters and their inclusive orientations. Study 1 investigates how inclusive and exclusive group norms influence children's expectations for acquiring social resources in cross-status interactions involving wealth and popularity. Findings reveal that group norms, rather than status level, play a stronger role in shaping expectations about social opportunities. Study 2 examines children's and adolescents' expectations of commonality and preference across race and wealth status, showing that children prioritize wealth over race when reasoning about peer relationships, with racial identity moderating these effects. Study 3 explores how moral reasoning fosters inclusive orientations, including evaluations of exclusion, empathy, and willingness to engage with diverse peers, by assessing changes across a structured program. Results indicate that children who engaged more frequently in moral reasoning demonstrated greater rejection of exclusion and stronger empathy for diverse peers. Together, these studies provide a nuanced understanding of how social contextual factors shape children's intergroup expectations and behaviors. By identifying mechanisms that reinforce exclusion and those that promote inclusion, this research offers critical insights for fostering more equitable and inclusive social environments in childhood.