Color Bias and Racial Preference in White South African Preschool Children

“Individuals develop pro-white/antiblack color preferences at an early age, and research suggests that color preference contributes to the subsequent development of racial preference (Duckitt et al., 1999).”

“Some studies (Best et al., 1975; Clark and Clark, 1940; Duckitt et al., 1999) observed that colors are also associated with trend biases: positive-white and negative-black, which can be strongly linked to documents that represent cultural and racial groups.”

“Humans may value conspicuous colors differently based on a combination of biases and social paradigms (Duckitt et al., 1999).”

“…be explained by the fact that members of a sociocultural cohort (e.g., race, gender, social class) share conditions of self-worth from exposure to similar sociocultural processes (Duckitt et al., 1999; Mpofu & Wilson, 2004; Thomas & Weinrach, 2002; Twenge & Crocker, 2002; Verkuyten & Thijs, 2002).”

“Eliminating the prejudice and discriminatory behaviors of children in early childhood is important for both the health and well-being of children (Duckitt et al., 1999).”

“There has been little recent research on the relationship between ethnicity or race and the friendships of preschool children, even though there is evidence that racial concept and racial awareness is present in children as young as 3 years of age ( Duckitt, Wall, & Pokroy, 1999 ; Levy, 2000 ; Van Ausdale & Feagin, 19…”

“…challenge because large-scale meta-analyses suggest that age is related to varying degrees of ingroup bias (Raabe & Beelmann, 2011), with children in the early elementary years generally exhibiting more racial bias compared to younger children (Aboud, 2003; Duckitt et al., 1999; Lee & Setoh, 2022).”

“Particularly relevant to the 108 current research, several studies have examined children’s prejudice—both implicit and explicit—109 in Africa (e.g., Duckitt et al., 1999; Fincham, 1978; Gregor & McPherson, 1966; Press et al., 1979; 110 Qian et al., 2021).”