Evaluation and Identification Responses of Negro Preschoolers to the Colors Black and White

Abstract

Previous studies had demonstrated a tendency toward the positive evaluation of white and the negative evaluation of black among Caucasian and Negro college students, and among Caucasian preschoolers. This study was aimed at assessing this tendency, and the tendency toward self-identification with these colors, among 89 Negro preschoolers ranging in age from 3-2 to 6-5. Ss' responses to procedures employing pictures of two animals, one colored white and one black, indicated that the children: (1) tended to associate positive evaluative adjectives (e.g., “good”) with the white figures and negative evaluative adjectives (e.g., “bad”) with the black figures; and (2) tended to identify with the white figure rather than the black figure. The findings were interpreted as providing additional evidence of the cross-racial, cross-cultural character of the evaluative connotations of white and black. Possible origins of these meanings, and their relationship to self-concept development in the Negro child, were discussed.