According to decades of findings in social psychological research, prejudice is prevalent is in the context of intergroup relations. Brown (1995) argued that prejudice is a group process, and this is because commonly, it is a view held by the majority of an ingroup towards an outgroup and this view influences their feelings and behavior towards members of that outgroup. Social identity theory developed by Tajfel (1979) suggests that prejudice occurs because of the two general needs that human beings have. Humans long to feel good about one’s self and as social creatures, we long to belong to social groups. The social groups we are part of tell us more about who we are as we long to relate to others. Tajfel believed that it is important for us to view our own social groups highly as the link is strong between how we feel about our ingroups and how we feel about ourselves.
In Brown’s (1995) research on the development of prejudice in children, he explores the area of social category awareness. Brown (1995) addresses the fact that there must be a point in time where children begin to understand the difference between themselves and others and how this must develop into a social category before any positive or negative connotations develop in the mind. Clark and Clark (1947) were one of the first to explore this subject of category awareness in children. Clark and Clark (1939) developed a study which involved showing black children from ages three to seven dolls with brown skin and dolls with white skin. They presented each child with two dolls, one white-skinned doll with blonde hair and one brown-skinned doll with brown hair. The children were then asked a series of questions by the researchers such as “show me the nice doll, show me the doll you’d like to play with most, show me the doll that looks bad, show me the doll that looks like you” and so on. The results of the investigation showed that most of the children attributed more positive characteristics to the white doll and more negative characteristics to the brown doll. These results showed great evidence that the black children had been affected by racial discrimination and segregation of white and black people and this led them to believing that white people are more beautiful than black people.
Theoretical and empirical basis of intervention.
Research shows that two main types of racism exist, namely, Dominative and aversive racism. Kovel (1970) was first to point out that there are differences between these old and new forms of prejudice. ‘Dominative racism’ reflects the old, more traditional form in which people were more likely to outwardly express these feelings of prejudice. According to Gaertner and Dovidio, (1986) Aversive racists are the modern racists who understands that it’s not acceptable to outwardly display prejudice but still hold underlying negative views about minority groups. The modern racist could be a supportive act for racial equality while also believing that black people are being unfair when they push for more rights because they believe that equality has been established and prejudice no longer exists. So Oh, Choi, Neville, Anderson & Landrum-Brown (2010) in their research into student’s beliefs about affirmative action and the existence of racial prejudice, found that white students were less likely to support the case for affirmative action and deemed them as unfair. Mcconahay (1982) suggest that modern and old-fashioned racism are related, and they share the same implicit attitudes, but they are manifested in different ways. Because both dominative and aversive racism share the same implicit attitudes, it is important that interventions are proposed to reduce these prejudice attitudes or prevent them from a young age in order to decrease the likelihood of a child with prejudiced views developing into an adult with prejudiced views and/or expresses discriminatory behavior based on those views.
The contact hypothesis proposed by Allport (1954) suggests that positive contact between members of an ingroup and members of an outgroup will result in a reduce in prejudice towards outgroup members and will establish more positive intergroup attitudes. Many researchers regard the contact hypothesis as an effective way to reduce prejudice amongst majority group members towards minority group members. Tversky and Kahneman (1973) in their research on psychological mechanisms, explain the human availability heuristic as the way in which people evaluate what’s happening around them with the closest thing that comes to mind. Sigelman and Welsh (1993) suggest that the availability heuristic is the reason that interracial positive contact results in reduced prejudice and positive interracial attitudes. They suggested that for a white person having a black friend and being exposed to how they live their lives, their emotions and their problems will serve as a concrete source of information about members of that particular group so that when the white person is confronted with other members of that group, they will immediately associate what they know about black people from their friend with another member of that group.
Sigelman and Welsh (1993) then went on to test the validity of the contact hypothesis by analyzing the results of a biracial national study conducted in 1989. The aim of their investigation was to find out whether whites and blacks that are in closer contact with members of the other race perceived less hostility between the races than those who do not have close contact with the other race and they also wanted to know if whites and blacks who do have frequent contact with members of the other race have more of a desire to maintain closer interracial social contact. The black and white participants were asked a series of questions regarding their contact with a member of the other race. The results of Sigelman and Welsh’s (1993) study revealed that whites were less likely to report having friends of the other race and were also less likely to report encountering members of the other race in the area that they live. Unsurprisingly, black participants were more likely to perceive racism as a widespread phenomenon. However, supporting their hypothesis, the results showed that white respondents who reported having close contact with a black person tended to perceive less hostility between the races. Black respondents who reported having close contact with a white person tended to perceive less of a local hostility, however, did not perceive less hostility on a national level.
Building upon the theory that positive contact can improve intergroup attitudes, Gaertner and Dovidio’s (2000) common ingroup identity model suggests that when members of different groups come together under one superordinate group, they develop a new common identity and this in turn establishes positive intergroup attitudes and works towards the elimination of intergroup bias.
Interracial interventions for children based on positive contact have been used in psychological research for decades. Cameron, Rutland, Brown and Douch (2006) in their investigation into how extended contact can change children’s attitude towards refugees found great evidence that imagined contact between children and refugee children can cause the children to develop positive attitudes towards refugee children. The intervention involved reading stories to children which imagined friendships between them and the refugee children. In the stories, the positive characteristics of refugee children were highlighted, and they were portrayed as being great at sports, liking animals and enjoying activities that children enjoy. Based on Gaertner and Dovidio’s (2000) common ingroup identity model, the children were able to form a common identity with the refugee children and their racial and ethnic identity became less important to the children than their common interests. The results of the intervention showed that the common identity approach works in the development of positive outgroup attitudes among children.
Tajfel’s (1979) and Tajfel & Turner’s (1986) work on social identity theory greatly contributed to our understanding of how and when prejudice develops in children. The theory proposes that children who go on to express prejudice in their early years go through four developmental phases. The first phase is known as the undifferentiated phase where children are 2-3 years old. At this phase, children do not have a salient knowledge or understanding of group membership. At phase two, known as the ethnic awareness phase, children are 3 years old and begin to become aware of their own group membership. At phase three, children begin to develop a preference of their own ingroup over the outgroup and at phase four, negative ethnic prejudice is seen in children as young as 7 years old. This theory also suggests that not all children develop prejudice views, and this is determined by strength in their own identity, what’s normal for their group and the perceived threat of the outgroup towards their ingroup. Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) theory is of value to the psychological community as we know that racial prejudice seems to begin in children around 7 years old, so it is important that interventions happen while the children are young to possibly prevent or reduce prejudice in young children.
Intervention content
The current intervention will take place among five primary schools in Northern Ireland for primary school children in primary 5. Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) theory states that prejudice can be seen in children as young as 7, although not all children display prejudice. In this intervention, children will be 8-9 years old, the aim is to reduce the prejudice if there is any there and to prevent prejudice from emerging. The intervention will take place among multiple schools in Northern Ireland in order to get the most variance in terms of ethnic groups. The schools will include catholic schools, protestant schools and integrated schools. Primary school children are an important group to use interventions for racial prejudice in as research shows that children who develop prejudiced feelings and express prejudice behavior towards members of an outgroup are more likely to develop into adults who are prejudiced. The intervention is based on Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis and will aim to reduce prejudice and prevent prejudice from emerging and aims for positive contact between members of interracial groups to result in more positive views of both groups. It also relies on Gaertner and Dovidio’s (2000) common ingroup identity model in aims that the children develop a common ingroup identity and that their racial background will be of less importance than their identity in the teams they are assigned.
Before the actual intervention takes place, children will be given a short questionnaire with questions asking if they have friends from other places in the world, if they have friends with other skin colors than their own and if they think it’s good to have friends from other places in the world and if it’s good to have friends with a different skin color from their own. These questions will provide a basis to see where the children are at in terms of their views of having interracial friendships.
Cross community residential trips in Northern Ireland have been highly effective in promoting positive intergroup contact among children. (CRIS, 2015) These types of residentials are effective because they give the children a chance to spend time with one another in both relaxed and energy-driven situations.
The intervention will involve children of varying ethnicities co-operating, learning and playing together. Children will be exposed to a fun-filled two day residential where they will be involved in different memory making activities such as; arts and crafts, instrument playing, playing outdoors and working together in sports games. The aim is for the children to view one another equally, noticing common interests, and realizing the strengths of one another. According to Gaertner and Dovidio’s (2000) common ingroup identity theory, by giving the children a common super-ordinate group, they will no longer focus on their differences but rather focus on the objectives of the new group they are part of. When the outdoor activities are taking place, white, black and children of other ethnicities will be strategically placed into teams where there is a great mix of ethnicities in each team. The aim of this is to encourage the children to focus on their teamwork as a group so that they will no longer see the differences in one another. Other tasks will include problem solving tasks where children will work together to achieve a common goal.
The intervention will adhere to Allport’s (1954) four conditions for prejudice reduction. He states that for prejudice to be reduced by intergroup contact, both groups must be in equal status. The children will be primary school from primary five classes, the children are all aged 9 and going through the same education. The second condition for reduced prejudice is cooperation between the two groups. Although the children will be competing in friendly sports games, they will be split into two large teams where there are children from varied ethnicities working together to create a shared goal and through this team bonding is expected to occur. The third condition is for the group to have common goals, in the problem-solving tasks, sports games, and team building activities, children will be working together to reach a common goal. The fourth condition is for authorities to be supportive of intergroup contact, in this intervention, intergroup contact is encouraged by psychological researchers who get support from the government and school boards in order to carry out the intervention.
After the intervention, children again be given another short questionnaire with the same questions as beforehand but with a few questions added on. Children will be asked if they enjoyed the residential, they’ll be asked to talk about their favorite part of the residential, they will also be asked if they enjoyed playing with children from different places in the world and of different skin colors.
Expected outcomes of the intervention.
By implementing the intervention, it is expected that by exposing children from different racial groups to one another, they will develop positive outgroup attitudes in seeing that their peers are human beings like themselves, all striving to work, learn, have fun and co-exist in the world.
If the current intervention is proven to be effective and there shows to be a reduce in prejudice, it could be of high value to psychological research and could be implemented in primary schools worldwide. Even if there are no significant changes, this intervention is still a valuable resource for schools to come together in working towards a world where children become adults who are open-minded, understanding and respectful of other cultures and ethnicities.
Challenges and difficulties.
As expected, there may be difficulties and challenges with the intervention. Although the intervention will be used for the sole purpose of interracial contact, it is probable that there will be a white majority among the children. This will limit the amount of contact that white children will have with children of another racial category and may mean that some children get more intergroup contact than others. This may make it difficult to have an equal variance of races in the teams when the children are doing team-work, however, the best attempt to make sure every child gets the opportunity to work with children of other racial categories will be made. Another factor to consider would be that some children may have already developed implicit prejudicial attitudes towards members of other racial groups, and this may show in their behavior as an avoidance or a discomfort or they may exclude a child or make them feel uncomfortable. This however, will be examined when the children are given a yes/no questionnaire before the intervention takes place and if there are any concerns raised, they will be dealt with.
Although Allport’s (1954) contact hypothesis is widely accepted and has been proven to reduce prejudice in a range of settings, there are also limits to the theory. Beelman and Heinmann, (2014) in their meta-analysis of prejudice reducing training programs for children and adolescents, have stated that even though these interventions to reduce prejudice in children intend to have long lasting impacts, they do not include long-term evaluations therefore it is unknown whether they have long-term effects. These types of interventions are limited in what they do because although intergroup contact may increase positive intergroup attitudes among children while undertaking the intervention, there is little evidence to suggest that these will continue when the child goes back to their social norm of limited contact.
Dixon, Durrheim and Tredoux (2007) in exploring the contact hypothesis and its role in attitudes towards racial equality policies, found that when whites have more contact with blacks, they tend to show less support for policies regarding racial equality. It seems that in some cases, when there is more positive contact between blacks and whites, whites tend to perceive less inequality overall simply because they didn’t experience a negative contact or see any unfair or unequal treatment in the present experience.
Paolini, Harwood and Rubin (2010) investigated how intergroup contact can have a negative impact on intergroup relations if the contact isn’t positive. In their experiment they asked participants to meet with a woman from Sri Lanka. One condition was for positive contact where the woman was relaxed and warm, and the other condition was negative contact where the woman was avoidant and cold. Then participants were asked to describe their experience in a questionnaire. The results showed that the participants were much more likely to mention the woman’s ethnicity when the contact was negative than the positive contact group. For the children, the intentions of the intervention will be that positive contact will happen the whole way through the intervention, but it isn’t always easy to control the types of behaviors that students will exhibit towards one another and one negative experience could have negative effects on the results of the intervention.