Abstract
Humans, like other animals, have a tendency to preferentially learn and retain some associations more readily than others. In humans, preferential learning was originally demonstrated for certain evolutionary prepared stimuli, such as snakes and angry faces and later extended to human social out-groups based on race (Olsson et al., 2005). To address the generality of this social learning bias, we examined if this learning bias extended to two separate classes of social out-groups represented by neutral Black and Middle-Eastern faces in 38 White (Swedish) participants. We found that other-ethnicity alone was not sufficient to induce an out-group learning bias; it was observed for Black, but not Middle-Eastern, out-group faces. Moreover, an exploratory analysis showed that growing up in an ethnically diverse environment was inversely related to the learning bias toward Middle-Eastern, but not Black, out-groups faces, suggesting that learned fears toward Middle-Eastern faces might be more permeable to environmental factors. Future research should address how both the quantity and quality of inter-group contact modulate out-group learning.
Highlights
Many intergroup conflicts involve groups defined along social dimensions, such as race/ethnicity, nationality, and religion
We found that other-ethnicity alone was not sufficient to induce an out-group learning bias; it was observed for Black, but not Middle-Eastern, out-group faces
A sizable literature suggest that exposure to out-group members should diminish racial biases and negative attitude toward racial out-group members (“contact hypothesis,” Allport, 1954; Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006), and that the degree of out-group pre-exposure may account for the differences in out-group fear learning (“latent inhibition”; Maia, 2009), neither negative racial attitudes or out-group preexposure moderated the out-group learning bias toward Black www.frontiersin.org
Summary
Many intergroup conflicts involve groups defined along social dimensions, such as race/ethnicity, nationality, and religion. The assumption that all associations are formed and maintained with equal ease was challenged in the 1970s by the evolutionary preparedness theory proposed by Seligman (1971), who emphasized the functional significance of maintaining learned fears to a certain class of so called prepared stimuli in order to avoid imminent threats A sizable literature suggest that exposure to out-group members should diminish racial biases and negative attitude toward racial out-group members (“contact hypothesis,” Allport, 1954; Pettigrew and Tropp, 2006), and that the degree of out-group pre-exposure may account for the differences in out-group fear learning (“latent inhibition”; Maia, 2009), neither negative racial attitudes or out-group preexposure moderated the out-group learning bias toward Black www.frontiersin.org
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