Theoretical Construction And Empirical Research On A Preschooler-Friendly Implicit Association Test

Attitude research has long been regarded as the core content of social psychology, playing an important role in human behavior. With increasing ethnic conflicts, large numbers of research have focused on the origin and the development of racial biases, as well as interventions to reduce racial biases. The Implicit Association Test is widely used in the research examining adults’biases. One limitation of this method is that it has high executive function demands and is consequently not appropriate for use with young children. In the present study, we address this limitation by developing a Preschool-friendly IAT (PSF-IAT) and tested its validity and effectiveness. We used the PSF-IAT to explore preschoolers’implicit racial bias as well as the meallibility of implicit racial attitudes. The present study enriched exsiting literature and offered a possible intervention to reduce racial bias. The biggest innovation of the present study is to offer a new adapted method to examine the origin and development of children’s attitudes.In Study 1, we established and validated the effectiveness of the PSF-IAT in a non-social domain, by using it to detect presumed near-universal evaluative association involving the contrasts of flowers and insects (Hypothesis 1). In Study 2, we validated the effectiveness of the PSF-IAT in a social domain, by using it to document children’s racial bias against Africans (Hypothesis 2). In Study 3, we explored the origin of implicit racial attitudes among 3-6 years old using the PSF-IAT. We assumed that children as young as 3 years old developed negative attitudes toward Africans both implicitly and explicitly (Hypothesis 3), and that the implicit racial attitudes are not significantly correlated with explicit racial attitudes (Hyhothesis 4). In Study 4, we examined the impact of individuation training on children’s implicit racial attitudes. We supposed that individuation training would reduce 3-6 years old children’s implicit racial bias, while exert no influence on explicit raical biases (Hypothesis 5).The present study concluded that:1. A PSF-IAT was established and effectively used to assess preschoolers’ implicit attitudes toward non-social categories.2. The PSF-IAT effectively assessed preschoolers’ implicit racial attitudes toward social categories, and was preschooler friendly.3. Children as young as 3 years old developed negative attitudes toward Africans, both implicitly and explicitly;4. No correlation was found in children’s implicit and explicit racial attitudes;5. Individuation training reduced implicit racial biases, while exerted no influence on explicit raical biases.