Constraints on the Development of Implicit Intergroup Attitudes

Abstract

Implicit attitudes form in the 1st years of life and change little across development. By age 6, children's implicit intergroup attitudes are sensitive to the cultural standing of their group relative to other groups in their milieu, such that individuals prefer their own group less when the comparison group is of higher cultural standing. In this article, I consider the claim that the stability of the magnitude of implicit attitudes across development reflects the absence of meaningful developmental change. I also examine the extent to which the developmental stability for implicit intergroup attitudes describes similarly the ontogeny of other forms of implicit associations, including stereotypes, identity, and self-esteem. And I characterize the landscape of what may be changing across these formative years in children's implicit intergroup cognition.