I was very astonished at the answers these kids gave when they were asked questions about which kid is mean or which kid is smart. Some of the questions this video states include, “is bias measurable even at an early age?” and, “how much do children learn from what they see and hear from adults?” I believe that bias is definitely measurable even at an early age. Children are learning prejudice from their society, including their parents, other adults around them, and media. Through what they hear, they are learning the stereotypes that are placed on other racial categories. I believe that children grow up hearing these stereotypes which ultimately leads them to become racist. Even though this is not always the case, it is proven to be true by the results of the tests. It made me really sad to see these little kids choose their race over others and that their only reason is because, “she is black,” or, “she is a lot darker than me.” This should not be how children respond to the questions that are being asked. Children aren’t necessarily raised to be prejudice; they are not directly being told that black people are dumb or white people are smart. But when considering the fact that children hear and absorb from their society more than we think, it is very reasonable to say that becoming prejudice may be inevitable. flxr007.
This may be a rather controversial reply, but I have read that racism was useful at one point early on in our history, regardless of skin color. Humans had small tribes at the very beginning. Anyone that looked different was automatically cause for alarm. Eventually we gathered together and formed cities, fought foreign wars, and race relations have grown exponentially from pointing and grunting suspiciously at the different-looking people. I wonder how much of these children's biases are inherent and evolutionary, perhaps reinforced by society but not necessarily created by it. The evidence for that would seem to be that the children grow less racially biased as they grow older.
It is rather disturbing though. If the same is true among older people (and we're just less honest about it than children), that's actually rather scary for anyone. Who knows what kind of biased baggage people are carrying around in their heads?
I find it interesting that the automatic racial bias in younger children seems to fade a bit (though significantly higher than I expected) as the children grew older. Some of this is probably simply exposure to people with darker skin tones and finding them not to be any different from anyone else. One girl states that near verbatim. But I find myself wondering where these biases come from. Cooper went out of his way to control as much as possible with variables: two age groups, professionals consulted on questions, schools in the north and south. What does this test show us? They don't seem to push the children at all as to why darker skin meant a teacher liked someone less. So there is a bias, but where is it coming from? The mother in the first segment seemed to try and reason out her daughter's bias. Could it come from home? Is it inherent in school? It's an interesting study, but in the 1940s it had a purpose. Brown v. Board of Education had to do with "separate but equal." The original test showed that separate was in fact not equal, and had a measurable effect on childrens' biases. This test merely shows that attitudes are similar, so it may in fact shed doubt on the original study. If Brown v. BoE truly changed things to make darker-skinned people more equal, why are we still getting near the same results 60 years later?
As you said, it is rather intriguing that instinctive racial bias in younger children seems to fade as they grow older. This may be because they begin to develop deeper relationships with people of other races and are able to construct their own opinion based on their experiences rather than what they have heard from others. Like you stated, they become more exposed and may realize that there are no differences between someone who has white skin color and one who has black skin color. On the flip side, you mentioned how as the children get older, they may have the same feelings or even more intense feelings about racial differences but learn to keep their thoughts to themselves. Either way, it amazes me that skin color has become such a controversy. I found your comment about wondering if children's biases are inherent and evolutionary interesting. This is because there is really no way to test if, over time, humans have developed this learned behavior that makes them be cautious of other races because of what has happened in the past. It would be fascinating if scientists were able to test this idea. flxr007.
Yeah, it did seem their bias was fading with age and probably education. I feel the bias present in the younger children was probably a mixture of not being actively approached by their parents regarding race, and instead the institutional racism present all around us doing the job in their absence. I think it's also a mixture in many cases simply of: "this person looks very different from me, so he is probably different, so therefore he's not as good/smart at I am." Children are taught to be cautious about what's different from their typical safe environment, ie, the "don't talk to strangers" rule and such. Perhaps the racial bias in many of these cases is a reflection of parents teaching caution about what is different while failing to also teach that some differences such as skin tone are not something to be afraid of. --Rainshadow007
I believe that the racial bias does come a lot from parents. If a child is white, raised in an all white community, they are probably more likely to feel "white is right", especially in younger kids. Same with black kids raised in an all black neighborhood. Of course there will always be exceptions, depending on the parents and how they chose to raise and educate their kids. I'm going to use my own situation as an example. My stepdaughter is black, and she enjoys hanging out with all different races of kids. We buy her brown and white dolls to play with, and a majority of the cartoons she chooses to watch have animals/people of obvious different colors. We encourage her to make friends with everyone. Now, her biological mother is of a mindset that she needs more black friends than white friends, and should be in a less racially diverse school. Her bio mother lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, and only has black friends herself. Now most people would have to assume that she was raised to think that way, and now that she's an adult, her mindset is not going to be changed. I think that as long as people don't say specifically anything about one race over another, most kids will be pretty racially neutral. Even myself, raised in a white town, was never raised to prefer white over black, it just never came up. Rescue007
I believe that the family does have a certain amount of influence over a child's attitudes when it comes to race, but I also believe that as humans we are born with certain instincts which can create certain attitudes at a young age that aren't necessarily taught. An example would be that it is only natural for humans to associate with those who are similar to ourselves because we are naturally drawn toward those with similar attributes to ourselves. Because of this, when an experiment involving only visual cues is done, the children who are responding are going to respond the most positively toward the picture that looks the most similar to themselves. Dynasty007
I agree with you guys that we associate with those that are similar to ourselves because we are drawn toward those that are similar to us. I agree because when I grew up I was more drawn towards Mexicans than the whites I would go to school with and at school I didn't feel like I fit in as much as all the white girls that were bffs and I didn't feel like a big importance to them, but as I grew older I saw that it doesn't matter and I will teach my kids to talk to everyone and not stereotype. So we are definitely drawn more to the ones that are similar to ourselves. soccer007
Naturally as humans we are drawn to those who are similar to ourselves. It doesn't mean someone is a racist because they associate positive attributes with those who are similar in appearance to themselves at an early age, it is only natural. This video to me, seems like yet another ploy by a liberal news station to further the black vs. white mentality across the nation that makes them money. Notice how the vast majority of the video was spent showing the negative answers of only white children in order to portray them in a negative light. The few black children who were actually shown in the video in the beginning associated the negative attributes with the picture of the white child just like the white children associated the negative attributes with the the picture of the black child; this shows the natural instinct to be drawn towards those who are similar to ourselves in a positive way at a young age. Notice how when the video gave the statistics of the responses, it only showed the statistics of the white children's responses and not those of the black children's responses. That is because if you had seen the statistics of the responses of the black children it would show that there is just as much of a "black bias" as there is a "white bias". CNN doesn't show all of the statistics because the true statistics would show the actual facts, and those fact go against the liberal agenda that the network trying to further. Dynasty007
I tried to respond to this comment before and it messed up, so, apologies if I show up twice saying the same thing. But I feel you bring up a good point, because while I was watching the video, I was thinking that I would like to see the data of the results of the experiment in its entirety, not just the answers to one or two questions that the five or six children shown in the video gave. Now that I think about it, I don't feel I have enough information about the topic to really speak on it, since everything I know about the Doll Test came from one source and that source was a short video. While I don't really feel this video is a ploy, I can understand where you're coming from, but there isn't really much I can confidently say about the topic without having gathered data from several reliable resources. Frog007
Everyone knows that children are sponges and will act just like those around them because they either want to do the same thing or they want to make those people around them happy. These test results blow my mind. I realize that at some point the children get older and come to discover their own ideas about race. But at what age would you see that? They don't exactly specify when that happens but they say that it does at some point. As a child you go by what others say and do. It might be a wake up call to parents if their children think that "whites are bad" or "blacks are bad" because the child is just going off what they see from parents and close family members. Sure you can have them all around you like at a soccer game, but do you actually spend time with them to show your child that they are good and not bad? It's almost like when you get a puppy and want to have them exposed to lots of people and different people to make sure they would be a good pet to have around everyone. Children can notice how you're feeling about someone. Like I said before, they are like a sponge. I also wish they would have shown more parents responses to the questions that were asked and to inform of how much activity they have around the opposite race. Then it would be apparent as to where these children get their ideas from. Lou007
When I read the sentence...'Children can notice how you're feeling about someone' it made me stop and think about stereotyping. Let's think about this.....perhaps a mother driving with her youngster in the car, she stops at a red light, and there is a group of African American males, or white males for that fact, that have their pants pulled down (rather than up), dreadlocks, hats on backwards, chains and whatever else........so she reaches over and locks the doors. (We've all seen this type of thing in Office Space).....The child sees/hears this and asks why she locked the door. She isn't feeling safe and the child associates that with the group of young men on the corner where she is stopped. I have been here before.......White, black, old, young, male and female. You can never be too sure, but now you've given the impression to your child that maybe people with the same features or characteristic associated with this group are not good people.
I know I ranted there, but it brings me to my point. Children are sponges and they do know how we are feeling about someone, and maybe it was innocent, and had nothing to do with race but rather safety, now this child associates bad feelings with the same people that were involved in this incident. Make sense? blonndie007
I actually have mixed feelings about the results of this study because of the way in which the test itself was conducted. Children are very open to suggestion, and by asking them to attribute strictly positive or negative traits to one of the five illustrations, which are exactly the same except for the color of their skin, the test seems to force children to consider race as essentially the only factor upon which they judge the illustrated children. There are certainly exceptions, such as the girl at the end of the clip, who chooses all five of the illustrations as representative of the "good looking" child; however, this girl is older, and thus is more likely to use her own critical thinking rather than following the specific instruction to only choose one illustration. Even with that in consideration, there is still an unmistakable bias in many of the children who participated in this experiment, as proven by the answers they provided to the follow-up question, "Why did you choose this child?" The participants almost exclusively responded with "Because she's black/brown/white," and "Because she looks different from/the same as me." However, I feel the most important piece of information that can be taken from this test were the answers to the questions "Show me the child who has the skin color most adults like/don't like." The children participating in this test are aware that the adult world around them has a bias against people with darker skin, and to many of them, that is a social norm. Many of those children, without a second thought, said the illustration was the dumb or ugly, or even evil child explicitly because she had very dark skin. So even though I do feel the test could have been conducted in a manner that was less prone to pushing its participants toward a specific line of thought, I still feel it speaks volumes about the way children are affected by the cultural biases of the modern western world. The mother at the beginning of the video was shocked about the racism the child (presumably the daughter of that woman) was presenting; she clearly did not intend to raise the girl to think that way, if it was even her who had that influence. Racism is so ingrained in the modern world that many of us witness it constantly without even realizing it. For example, black women in fashion magazines and other advertisements often have their skin lightened in post-production because out culture still has a subtle but influential bias toward lighter skin being seen as "more beautiful." Every small aspect of our culture that presents bias, no matter how subtle or blatant that bias may be, has an effect on the growing child. The environment in which a child grows up affects how they see the world and shapes their values, and the Doll Test clearly shows that children in the modern world are growing up in a society that is influencing them to develop racial biases at very young ages. Frog007
I agree with your point that every factor of todays society has bias, from someone's skin color, to their culture, even their personality. The media does imply to people that lighter is better, I know there aren't even many truly dark skinned models in the industry. And besides media affecting kids, they observe their parents and the adults around them. Even if nothing bad is said, the kids can still read your facial expressions, body language, and gauge the tone of your voice to see if you are positive or negative about something. So unless an adult truly isn't biased, it would be difficult to have a totally unbiased child. Rescue007
It was really sad to hear some of the answers that were given by the younger children. My thought process was that perhaps the younger children, had not been previously introduced or had any type of social interaction with a child of another race. It may be a shock for a child entering Kindergarten to have to interact with a child of another race, or someone who is 'different' from them, if they haven't yet been exposed. I think that as they grow older, and have had more interaction with classmates of different races, that they may in fact realize, that maybe these children are not so different from them. Maybe when they are older, their answers to these question would be different. I would hope that they would grow, and mature, and see that race is just a color. I am also curious to know how much of these answers were inherited from parents, or grandparents for that matter, and if that were the case, it is bothersome. I feel that we really haven't come a long way from the 'black and white' issue, I feel it is still all around us today, no matter where we go. I think that it will always be a problem, that it will never truly be resolved. blonndie007
Actually based on other studies children are least likely to see race than any other age group. Children see other kids as their friend, not as their black, white, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Indian, etc. friend. Kids are the most "color blind" of all age groups. Most "race problems" in children come from things they have seen, heard, or experienced with age groups that are older than they are. When I asked my 4 year old and my 6 year old what makes them different they say things like we have different toys and we sleep in different rooms. The 4 year old is mulatto and the 6 year old is Caucasian. When asked what makes them the same they say things like we are brothers and that you are our mom. (Note: the 4 year old is my current foster placement, therefore I am not his bio mom)
My point in this is that we have race conversations whenever they bring it up but we react to it by saying that God made Dash's skin darker then yours, but you were both made perfect in God's eyes and you were made the way he wants you to be and we love you both the same no matter what color you are. Race is only an issue if you make it one.
I'd say that the Doll Test doesn't do a good job on asking the questions it did. I feel that the kids refer to what the adult wants to hear them say and what they hear around them. Children learn to stereotype from while hearing what's around them and seeing media and their society. It depends where you live. Which makes them become prejudice towards the other colors of the kids in the picture they were shown. As they grow older they will become less biased as they see how things really are and how much has changed over they years. They older ones have a better understanding on not judging and aren't as biased as the younger ones are. It really depends on how the parents teach them to see that color doesn't matter and they should treat everyone equal and not pick on the other color like the kids answer the questions that are being asked it's because they aren't informed enough about racial interactions with others. It all depends on the family that they are raised by is what makes them pick what they pick of the pictures they pick the ones that are like them. If the parents do labeling on people the kids will start thinking that way as well. Like the older girl said in the video it's not what's on the outside but what's in the inside of they person. soccer007
WOOOOOOOOOOW! This video is really sad and says a lot about what at child is taught at home and picks up on from surrounding societies. God this video really brought tears to my eyes for children to think such hateful acts at such an early age. At times we say things out of anger and don't always pay attention that the children are watching and paying attention to our every action and move. So we have to be very wise of our choice of words, let alone are actions. Also teach are children that just because someone has a darker skin color or lighter skin color than you does not mean they are mean or that person is ugly. However these here are lessons we have to teach starting at home then they'll know how to deal with these different questions that come into conflict and they'll know how to answer them a better. While feeling more comfortable and at ease while doing so. Every race is beautiful, intelligent, and a great purpose to live for. Everyone is equal and i love everyone the same, due to the fact that i was taught to as a child . My grandmother and mother embedded these attributes into me early which i appreciate immeasurably. I'm am very grateful to have remodels as such! Tricey007
I totally agree! i think it is absolutely ridiculous that children this age see others the way they do. As parents, you would think that you would want to teach your child to do things the right way, not judge others. When i was this age, i would've never said anything to hurt anyone because you obviously cant change your skin color. This video really brought tears to my eyes as well, because just the thought of being this age and having the thoughts that they had was completely surprising. I loved to see the little girl say that color doesnt mean anything and that it shouldnt define a person. Bean007
The doll test is a good test to see what children really think of others. The first child has not been taught the right things. she think that because you have darker skin you are a bad person, and your ugly. that is not true, society looks at colored people in that way in many cases. But for a child to think that right off top then she has been taught that, because you have to be taught how to be racist or prejudice, it doesn't just happen. the second girl was much better , she was fine in the skin she is in. She look at the world in a better way than just the color of someone skin. she said that "it doesn't matter what is on the outside, it matters what is on the inside." which is correct , color shouldn't matter.
It was surprising to see so many white children identify the "brown" and "black" skinned children as "bad" and "mean" while most black children said that they don't see white children in those ways. Most black children understand what its like to be seen in such negative ways, so i think their view of others is better. As a child, i grew up in a majority black children environment and they were all considered to be my friends. I never felt as if they were any different than me.I treated them the way i wanted to be treated. I sat with them at lunch, played with them at recess, and even shared my supplies with them when needed. I feel as if generations have changed since i was the age of these children, but i don't think that should change anything, We are all human beings and no matter what skin color we are, we deserve to be seen in the same ways. Not all people are the same and there is no reason to judge someone as a bad person because of their skin color. Bean007
I don't know if it is so much that society has reverted back to being such a bad place as it is that the place that this study was done is mainly populated by people who feel this way. If they asked the people that you grew up with the same questions then you might see different results. The first mom in the study said that race just wasn't something that they talked about. I feel that based on the place that a child is raised, the values they are taught, and the way their parents treat people of other races is how their children feel that it is okay to treat people of other races.
I agree with you and that’s why I but all the responsibility on the parents and school because the kids are trying to apply what they have learned at home or school. In my opinion the ego plays a significant role in the education of their children. And I see this ego is big when the parents are white than others.. Hassan007
The doll test is a fascinating and upsetting study. It does seem to point toward a bias, particularly a white bias, in most cases, especially among the younger age group. I did notice that some of the African-American children also were biased against the white images in favor of the darker ones. This leads me to believe that the children simply felt uncertain or poorly toward what was unfamiliar to them. They know who they are and what they look like, and their playgroup and family most likely resembles them as well in skin tone and racial features. Children of another race are something likely unknown from a personal level at that age, and therefore are considered bad, scary, or ugly because they are different. A huge problem with this is a sense of institutional racism, in which these patterns are repeated again and again. It really struck a chord with me when the mother of the first child in the study teared up and simply said that they had never really spoken about race. I think that is the key to these results. Just because a parent does not speak poorly of other races doesn't inherently mean it creates a sort of bias, as that bias is present and subconsciously picked up due to the institutional racism everywhere in this country. To break that mold, I think it's extremely important for parents to actively engage their children about topics like race, and to explain that all people are equal. It's also important for children to be able to interact with other children or people of different skin tones to help show them that what is different is not necessarily frightening or bad. In this case, it seems that a passive, non-present stance from parents regarding issues like race can be nearly as detrimental to their children as an outright openly negative viewpoint.
It was refreshing to see the older children begin to show signs of enlightenment, refusing to point at one color to call out as better or worse, probably as the result of exposure to different races and being educated by their parents, school, or other peers. Also, as one last note: I cannot help but wonder how many of these children actually felt different, if they wanted to say, perhaps, what some of the bolder/older children did (ie, none of them are bad), and were simply conforming to the orders they were given by an authority/adult figure, especially in the younger group. If an adult says, point toward the bad child, or the ugly child, a small child hearing such an instruction might not have the courage or mental audacity to defy that order and explain that they didn't think any were bad or ugly, even if they truly thought that. Perhaps it would have been more fair to be more open about the approach, instead of giving instructions of "Choose the one who...", the instructor may say, "Do you feel any of these children are better/worse than the others? If so can you point to them? Why?" therefore leaving the choice ultimately in the child's hands. I did notice many of the children seemed hesitant, even surprised, when told to choose who was the bad or stupid child. -- Rainshadow007
The doll test showed a clear example of societies views on different races. As shown the young children were asked which doll was the "nice" one and which one was the "mean" one. Almost all of the children picked the white child to be the good one and the darker skinned child to be the bad one. I feel this reflects on our society, in that these children pick up the ways of their parents. Maybe the kids see their parents avoid black people or don't interact with another race so they will assume that the black kids are bad, which is not true and that is where prejudice comes in. Some of the children when asked why they choose the black kid as the "bad" kid answered " Because he looks different than me" this could be because the children with this answer is to young to understand we are all the same, regardless of race we are all human. The older children had better answers than the younger ones like the one girl that said all the different colored children were good looking. This could be that older kids understand that we are all the same, well equal humans anyway. I still think society plays a big role on the decisions though because like I said before kids pick up on their surroundings and hear things that their parents might say about another race, so they take those views as well. B.O.N007
The doll test showed very clearly that there is still a race problem in society today. When 66% of white children labeled the "black" child as the bad one, the mean one, the dumb one, etc. i was shocked. I did not realize that race was such a big problem still, even today. I grew up in a small town and I have two mulatto step-siblings. I currently have two mulatto foster children right now, to me race is not a thing that I look at but with this video I realized that while I may not see it that my foster children do. Violet comments on the race of people all the time, when we are watching movies, shopping, out to dinner, at church. No matter where we are she makes comments like "He's white" and while she is not doing it out of spite or from a racist point of view it still bothers us. We rebut her comments by saying that race does not matter and we expose her to my family as often as possible saying that you don't have to be the same color to be part of the same family. I know that she has grown up with her biological parents making a big deal out of race, as told to us by them however with it looking like a termination of the parents rights and us adopting them we are trying to drive home that family isn't just blood, family is love, shared experiences, and most importantly a choice. Violet and Dash don't have to choose to be of our family once they are adults but we are going to instill in them the best values we can while we are their parents. Yes race is still a big deal to some people, but it doesn't have to be.
Race is still a problem and I think that there will always be a little racism everywhere in the world because of where we started. It is getting better, although, I think that children need to be exposed to the problems and understand what racism is and that it is not okay. I think that our society is treating kids more grown up than before and if we are going to test our 4 and 5 year olds on racism then they should be able to be talked to about the issue and I think that starting the awareness at a young age can really make a difference. Undecided007
I am not surprise about what I saw in the video because I had bad experience about racism when I was kid. That’s why I but all the responsibility on the parents and school because the kids are trying to apply what they have learned at home or school. In addition to the impact of the principles of religion on the behavior of individuals, then we find the customs and tradition as well as. I also think that there is intolerance of whites and blacks and the mutual. In my opinion the solution is correct the concepts among children in the school and television through animation and education system. Hassan007
I think that the test results are surprising because the white kids chose the black child to be bad, dumb, and not looked upon well by adults. And the black kids chose the white child to be mean or bad. The older children were more accepting in this study. I think that the younger kids see how adults act in public and hear what they say about other races and they automatically make their parents’ thoughts their own because they are so young. The older children know more about race because they have probably been talked to about the issue by their parents or at school. This test does show how kids react to what their parents expose them to but I don’t think that it is accurate to test young children who don’t really know what to think. Parents need to be cautious about what they do and say in front of their children, especially when it comes to race. Undecided007
The doll test was very intriguing to watch. The video said half of the tests were done in northern states and the other half were performed in southern states. I am curious as to whether or not there was more racial bias in either the northern or southern states. I also noticed that there were 2 age groups that were tested. The younger kids seemed to think that the tone of skin that was not their own meant that the child depicted was bad or mean. As showed, the older kids did not seem to pick a certain side as much as the younger kids. I believe that the younger kids did not really know how to respond to the questions. As stated by the first mother, "We have never really talked about race." So these kids who have never really talked about race are being asked racial questions, and maybe they are just going with a "safe" answer? But, the older kids who have more education and experience with socialization, knew how to respond and maybe even why the tests were being done. This could prove to be a fault in the tests because the older kids could be more inclined to lie because they know what is right and wrong, and the younger kids give honest answers. Either way this shows that there still is an issue regarding racial bias even in young ages. Perhaps more education and talks are needed to show children that we are all individuals and are all the same. Even if the tone of our skin is different.
I was very astonished at the answers these kids gave when they were asked questions about which kid is mean or which kid is smart. Some of the questions this video states include, “is bias measurable even at an early age?” and, “how much do children learn from what they see and hear from adults?” I believe that bias is definitely measurable even at an early age. Children are learning prejudice from their society, including their parents, other adults around them, and media. Through what they hear, they are learning the stereotypes that are placed on other racial categories. I believe that children grow up hearing these stereotypes which ultimately leads them to become racist. Even though this is not always the case, it is proven to be true by the results of the tests. It made me really sad to see these little kids choose their race over others and that their only reason is because, “she is black,” or, “she is a lot darker than me.” This should not be how children respond to the questions that are being asked. Children aren’t necessarily raised to be prejudice; they are not directly being told that black people are dumb or white people are smart. But when considering the fact that children hear and absorb from their society more than we think, it is very reasonable to say that becoming prejudice may be inevitable. flxr007.
ReplyDeleteThis may be a rather controversial reply, but I have read that racism was useful at one point early on in our history, regardless of skin color. Humans had small tribes at the very beginning. Anyone that looked different was automatically cause for alarm. Eventually we gathered together and formed cities, fought foreign wars, and race relations have grown exponentially from pointing and grunting suspiciously at the different-looking people. I wonder how much of these children's biases are inherent and evolutionary, perhaps reinforced by society but not necessarily created by it. The evidence for that would seem to be that the children grow less racially biased as they grow older.
DeleteIt is rather disturbing though. If the same is true among older people (and we're just less honest about it than children), that's actually rather scary for anyone. Who knows what kind of biased baggage people are carrying around in their heads?
LittleJimmyBond007
I find it interesting that the automatic racial bias in younger children seems to fade a bit (though significantly higher than I expected) as the children grew older. Some of this is probably simply exposure to people with darker skin tones and finding them not to be any different from anyone else. One girl states that near verbatim. But I find myself wondering where these biases come from. Cooper went out of his way to control as much as possible with variables: two age groups, professionals consulted on questions, schools in the north and south. What does this test show us? They don't seem to push the children at all as to why darker skin meant a teacher liked someone less. So there is a bias, but where is it coming from? The mother in the first segment seemed to try and reason out her daughter's bias. Could it come from home? Is it inherent in school? It's an interesting study, but in the 1940s it had a purpose. Brown v. Board of Education had to do with "separate but equal." The original test showed that separate was in fact not equal, and had a measurable effect on childrens' biases. This test merely shows that attitudes are similar, so it may in fact shed doubt on the original study. If Brown v. BoE truly changed things to make darker-skinned people more equal, why are we still getting near the same results 60 years later?
ReplyDeleteLittleJimmyBond007
As you said, it is rather intriguing that instinctive racial bias in younger children seems to fade as they grow older. This may be because they begin to develop deeper relationships with people of other races and are able to construct their own opinion based on their experiences rather than what they have heard from others. Like you stated, they become more exposed and may realize that there are no differences between someone who has white skin color and one who has black skin color. On the flip side, you mentioned how as the children get older, they may have the same feelings or even more intense feelings about racial differences but learn to keep their thoughts to themselves. Either way, it amazes me that skin color has become such a controversy. I found your comment about wondering if children's biases are inherent and evolutionary interesting. This is because there is really no way to test if, over time, humans have developed this learned behavior that makes them be cautious of other races because of what has happened in the past. It would be fascinating if scientists were able to test this idea.
Deleteflxr007.
Yeah, it did seem their bias was fading with age and probably education. I feel the bias present in the younger children was probably a mixture of not being actively approached by their parents regarding race, and instead the institutional racism present all around us doing the job in their absence. I think it's also a mixture in many cases simply of: "this person looks very different from me, so he is probably different, so therefore he's not as good/smart at I am." Children are taught to be cautious about what's different from their typical safe environment, ie, the "don't talk to strangers" rule and such. Perhaps the racial bias in many of these cases is a reflection of parents teaching caution about what is different while failing to also teach that some differences such as skin tone are not something to be afraid of. --Rainshadow007
DeleteI believe that the racial bias does come a lot from parents. If a child is white, raised in an all white community, they are probably more likely to feel "white is right", especially in younger kids. Same with black kids raised in an all black neighborhood. Of course there will always be exceptions, depending on the parents and how they chose to raise and educate their kids. I'm going to use my own situation as an example. My stepdaughter is black, and she enjoys hanging out with all different races of kids. We buy her brown and white dolls to play with, and a majority of the cartoons she chooses to watch have animals/people of obvious different colors. We encourage her to make friends with everyone. Now, her biological mother is of a mindset that she needs more black friends than white friends, and should be in a less racially diverse school. Her bio mother lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, and only has black friends herself. Now most people would have to assume that she was raised to think that way, and now that she's an adult, her mindset is not going to be changed. I think that as long as people don't say specifically anything about one race over another, most kids will be pretty racially neutral. Even myself, raised in a white town, was never raised to prefer white over black, it just never came up. Rescue007
ReplyDeleteI believe that the family does have a certain amount of influence over a child's attitudes when it comes to race, but I also believe that as humans we are born with certain instincts which can create certain attitudes at a young age that aren't necessarily taught. An example would be that it is only natural for humans to associate with those who are similar to ourselves because we are naturally drawn toward those with similar attributes to ourselves. Because of this, when an experiment involving only visual cues is done, the children who are responding are going to respond the most positively toward the picture that looks the most similar to themselves. Dynasty007
DeleteI agree with you guys that we associate with those that are similar to ourselves because we are drawn toward those that are similar to us. I agree because when I grew up I was more drawn towards Mexicans than the whites I would go to school with and at school I didn't feel like I fit in as much as all the white girls that were bffs and I didn't feel like a big importance to them, but as I grew older I saw that it doesn't matter and I will teach my kids to talk to everyone and not stereotype. So we are definitely drawn more to the ones that are similar to ourselves. soccer007
DeleteNaturally as humans we are drawn to those who are similar to ourselves. It doesn't mean someone is a racist because they associate positive attributes with those who are similar in appearance to themselves at an early age, it is only natural. This video to me, seems like yet another ploy by a liberal news station to further the black vs. white mentality across the nation that makes them money. Notice how the vast majority of the video was spent showing the negative answers of only white children in order to portray them in a negative light. The few black children who were actually shown in the video in the beginning associated the negative attributes with the picture of the white child just like the white children associated the negative attributes with the the picture of the black child; this shows the natural instinct to be drawn towards those who are similar to ourselves in a positive way at a young age. Notice how when the video gave the statistics of the responses, it only showed the statistics of the white children's responses and not those of the black children's responses. That is because if you had seen the statistics of the responses of the black children it would show that there is just as much of a "black bias" as there is a "white bias". CNN doesn't show all of the statistics because the true statistics would show the actual facts, and those fact go against the liberal agenda that the network trying to further. Dynasty007
ReplyDeleteI tried to respond to this comment before and it messed up, so, apologies if I show up twice saying the same thing. But I feel you bring up a good point, because while I was watching the video, I was thinking that I would like to see the data of the results of the experiment in its entirety, not just the answers to one or two questions that the five or six children shown in the video gave. Now that I think about it, I don't feel I have enough information about the topic to really speak on it, since everything I know about the Doll Test came from one source and that source was a short video. While I don't really feel this video is a ploy, I can understand where you're coming from, but there isn't really much I can confidently say about the topic without having gathered data from several reliable resources. Frog007
DeleteEveryone knows that children are sponges and will act just like those around them because they either want to do the same thing or they want to make those people around them happy. These test results blow my mind. I realize that at some point the children get older and come to discover their own ideas about race. But at what age would you see that? They don't exactly specify when that happens but they say that it does at some point. As a child you go by what others say and do. It might be a wake up call to parents if their children think that "whites are bad" or "blacks are bad" because the child is just going off what they see from parents and close family members. Sure you can have them all around you like at a soccer game, but do you actually spend time with them to show your child that they are good and not bad? It's almost like when you get a puppy and want to have them exposed to lots of people and different people to make sure they would be a good pet to have around everyone. Children can notice how you're feeling about someone. Like I said before, they are like a sponge. I also wish they would have shown more parents responses to the questions that were asked and to inform of how much activity they have around the opposite race. Then it would be apparent as to where these children get their ideas from. Lou007
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the sentence...'Children can notice how you're feeling about someone' it made me stop and think about stereotyping. Let's think about this.....perhaps a mother driving with her youngster in the car, she stops at a red light, and there is a group of African American males, or white males for that fact, that have their pants pulled down (rather than up), dreadlocks, hats on backwards, chains and whatever else........so she reaches over and locks the doors. (We've all seen this type of thing in Office Space).....The child sees/hears this and asks why she locked the door. She isn't feeling safe and the child associates that with the group of young men on the corner where she is stopped. I have been here before.......White, black, old, young, male and female. You can never be too sure, but now you've given the impression to your child that maybe people with the same features or characteristic associated with this group are not good people.
DeleteI know I ranted there, but it brings me to my point. Children are sponges and they do know how we are feeling about someone, and maybe it was innocent, and had nothing to do with race but rather safety, now this child associates bad feelings with the same people that were involved in this incident. Make sense? blonndie007
I actually have mixed feelings about the results of this study because of the way in which the test itself was conducted. Children are very open to suggestion, and by asking them to attribute strictly positive or negative traits to one of the five illustrations, which are exactly the same except for the color of their skin, the test seems to force children to consider race as essentially the only factor upon which they judge the illustrated children. There are certainly exceptions, such as the girl at the end of the clip, who chooses all five of the illustrations as representative of the "good looking" child; however, this girl is older, and thus is more likely to use her own critical thinking rather than following the specific instruction to only choose one illustration.
ReplyDeleteEven with that in consideration, there is still an unmistakable bias in many of the children who participated in this experiment, as proven by the answers they provided to the follow-up question, "Why did you choose this child?" The participants almost exclusively responded with "Because she's black/brown/white," and "Because she looks different from/the same as me."
However, I feel the most important piece of information that can be taken from this test were the answers to the questions "Show me the child who has the skin color most adults like/don't like." The children participating in this test are aware that the adult world around them has a bias against people with darker skin, and to many of them, that is a social norm. Many of those children, without a second thought, said the illustration was the dumb or ugly, or even evil child explicitly because she had very dark skin.
So even though I do feel the test could have been conducted in a manner that was less prone to pushing its participants toward a specific line of thought, I still feel it speaks volumes about the way children are affected by the cultural biases of the modern western world. The mother at the beginning of the video was shocked about the racism the child (presumably the daughter of that woman) was presenting; she clearly did not intend to raise the girl to think that way, if it was even her who had that influence. Racism is so ingrained in the modern world that many of us witness it constantly without even realizing it. For example, black women in fashion magazines and other advertisements often have their skin lightened in post-production because out culture still has a subtle but influential bias toward lighter skin being seen as "more beautiful." Every small aspect of our culture that presents bias, no matter how subtle or blatant that bias may be, has an effect on the growing child. The environment in which a child grows up affects how they see the world and shapes their values, and the Doll Test clearly shows that children in the modern world are growing up in a society that is influencing them to develop racial biases at very young ages. Frog007
I agree with your point that every factor of todays society has bias, from someone's skin color, to their culture, even their personality. The media does imply to people that lighter is better, I know there aren't even many truly dark skinned models in the industry. And besides media affecting kids, they observe their parents and the adults around them. Even if nothing bad is said, the kids can still read your facial expressions, body language, and gauge the tone of your voice to see if you are positive or negative about something. So unless an adult truly isn't biased, it would be difficult to have a totally unbiased child. Rescue007
DeleteIt was really sad to hear some of the answers that were given by the younger children. My thought process was that perhaps the younger children, had not been previously introduced or had any type of social interaction with a child of another race. It may be a shock for a child entering Kindergarten to have to interact with a child of another race, or someone who is 'different' from them, if they haven't yet been exposed. I think that as they grow older, and have had more interaction with classmates of different races, that they may in fact realize, that maybe these children are not so different from them. Maybe when they are older, their answers to these question would be different. I would hope that they would grow, and mature, and see that race is just a color. I am also curious to know how much of these answers were inherited from parents, or grandparents for that matter, and if that were the case, it is bothersome. I feel that we really haven't come a long way from the 'black and white' issue, I feel it is still all around us today, no matter where we go. I think that it will always be a problem, that it will never truly be resolved. blonndie007
ReplyDeleteActually based on other studies children are least likely to see race than any other age group. Children see other kids as their friend, not as their black, white, Chinese, Puerto Rican, Indian, etc. friend. Kids are the most "color blind" of all age groups. Most "race problems" in children come from things they have seen, heard, or experienced with age groups that are older than they are. When I asked my 4 year old and my 6 year old what makes them different they say things like we have different toys and we sleep in different rooms. The 4 year old is mulatto and the 6 year old is Caucasian. When asked what makes them the same they say things like we are brothers and that you are our mom. (Note: the 4 year old is my current foster placement, therefore I am not his bio mom)
DeleteMy point in this is that we have race conversations whenever they bring it up but we react to it by saying that God made Dash's skin darker then yours, but you were both made perfect in God's eyes and you were made the way he wants you to be and we love you both the same no matter what color you are. Race is only an issue if you make it one.
hello_sweetie007
I'd say that the Doll Test doesn't do a good job on asking the questions it did. I feel that the kids refer to what the adult wants to hear them say and what they hear around them. Children learn to stereotype from while hearing what's around them and seeing media and their society. It depends where you live. Which makes them become prejudice towards the other colors of the kids in the picture they were shown. As they grow older they will become less biased as they see how things really are and how much has changed over they years. They older ones have a better understanding on not judging and aren't as biased as the younger ones are. It really depends on how the parents teach them to see that color doesn't matter and they should treat everyone equal and not pick on the other color like the kids answer the questions that are being asked it's because they aren't informed enough about racial interactions with others. It all depends on the family that they are raised by is what makes them pick what they pick of the pictures they pick the ones that are like them. If the parents do labeling on people the kids will start thinking that way as well. Like the older girl said in the video it's not what's on the outside but what's in the inside of they person. soccer007
ReplyDeleteWOOOOOOOOOOW! This video is really sad and says a lot about what at child is taught at home and picks up on from surrounding societies. God this video really brought tears to my eyes for children to think such hateful acts at such an early age. At times we say things out of anger and don't always pay attention that the children are watching and paying attention to our every action and move. So we have to be very wise of our choice of words, let alone are actions. Also teach are children that just because someone has a darker skin color or lighter skin color than you does not mean they are mean or that person is ugly. However these here are lessons we have to teach starting at home then they'll know how to deal with these different questions that come into conflict and they'll know how to answer them a better. While feeling more comfortable and at ease while doing so. Every race is beautiful, intelligent, and a great purpose to live for. Everyone is equal and i love everyone the same, due to the fact that i was taught to as a child . My grandmother and mother embedded these attributes into me early which i appreciate immeasurably. I'm am very grateful to have remodels as such! Tricey007
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! i think it is absolutely ridiculous that children this age see others the way they do. As parents, you would think that you would want to teach your child to do things the right way, not judge others. When i was this age, i would've never said anything to hurt anyone because you obviously cant change your skin color. This video really brought tears to my eyes as well, because just the thought of being this age and having the thoughts that they had was completely surprising. I loved to see the little girl say that color doesnt mean anything and that it shouldnt define a person. Bean007
DeleteThe doll test is a good test to see what children really think of others. The first child has not been taught the right things. she think that because you have darker skin you are a bad person, and your ugly. that is not true, society looks at colored people in that way in many cases. But for a child to think that right off top then she has been taught that, because you have to be taught how to be racist or prejudice, it doesn't just happen. the second girl was much better , she was fine in the skin she is in. She look at the world in a better way than just the color of someone skin. she said that "it doesn't matter what is on the outside, it matters what is on the inside." which is correct , color shouldn't matter.
ReplyDeletehonesty007
It was surprising to see so many white children identify the "brown" and "black" skinned children as "bad" and "mean" while most black children said that they don't see white children in those ways. Most black children understand what its like to be seen in such negative ways, so i think their view of others is better. As a child, i grew up in a majority black children environment and they were all considered to be my friends. I never felt as if they were any different than me.I treated them the way i wanted to be treated. I sat with them at lunch, played with them at recess, and even shared my supplies with them when needed. I feel as if generations have changed since i was the age of these children, but i don't think that should change anything, We are all human beings and no matter what skin color we are, we deserve to be seen in the same ways. Not all people are the same and there is no reason to judge someone as a bad person because of their skin color. Bean007
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it is so much that society has reverted back to being such a bad place as it is that the place that this study was done is mainly populated by people who feel this way. If they asked the people that you grew up with the same questions then you might see different results. The first mom in the study said that race just wasn't something that they talked about. I feel that based on the place that a child is raised, the values they are taught, and the way their parents treat people of other races is how their children feel that it is okay to treat people of other races.
Deletehello_sweetie007
I agree with you and that’s why I but all the responsibility on the parents and school because the kids are trying to apply what they have learned at home or school. In my opinion the ego plays a significant role in the education of their children. And I see this ego is big when the parents are white than others.. Hassan007
DeleteThe doll test is a fascinating and upsetting study. It does seem to point toward a bias, particularly a white bias, in most cases, especially among the younger age group. I did notice that some of the African-American children also were biased against the white images in favor of the darker ones. This leads me to believe that the children simply felt uncertain or poorly toward what was unfamiliar to them. They know who they are and what they look like, and their playgroup and family most likely resembles them as well in skin tone and racial features. Children of another race are something likely unknown from a personal level at that age, and therefore are considered bad, scary, or ugly because they are different. A huge problem with this is a sense of institutional racism, in which these patterns are repeated again and again. It really struck a chord with me when the mother of the first child in the study teared up and simply said that they had never really spoken about race. I think that is the key to these results. Just because a parent does not speak poorly of other races doesn't inherently mean it creates a sort of bias, as that bias is present and subconsciously picked up due to the institutional racism everywhere in this country. To break that mold, I think it's extremely important for parents to actively engage their children about topics like race, and to explain that all people are equal. It's also important for children to be able to interact with other children or people of different skin tones to help show them that what is different is not necessarily frightening or bad. In this case, it seems that a passive, non-present stance from parents regarding issues like race can be nearly as detrimental to their children as an outright openly negative viewpoint.
ReplyDeleteIt was refreshing to see the older children begin to show signs of enlightenment, refusing to point at one color to call out as better or worse, probably as the result of exposure to different races and being educated by their parents, school, or other peers. Also, as one last note: I cannot help but wonder how many of these children actually felt different, if they wanted to say, perhaps, what some of the bolder/older children did (ie, none of them are bad), and were simply conforming to the orders they were given by an authority/adult figure, especially in the younger group. If an adult says, point toward the bad child, or the ugly child, a small child hearing such an instruction might not have the courage or mental audacity to defy that order and explain that they didn't think any were bad or ugly, even if they truly thought that. Perhaps it would have been more fair to be more open about the approach, instead of giving instructions of "Choose the one who...", the instructor may say, "Do you feel any of these children are better/worse than the others? If so can you point to them? Why?" therefore leaving the choice ultimately in the child's hands. I did notice many of the children seemed hesitant, even surprised, when told to choose who was the bad or stupid child. -- Rainshadow007
The doll test showed a clear example of societies views on different races. As shown the young children were asked which doll was the "nice" one and which one was the "mean" one. Almost all of the children picked the white child to be the good one and the darker skinned child to be the bad one. I feel this reflects on our society, in that these children pick up the ways of their parents. Maybe the kids see their parents avoid black people or don't interact with another race so they will assume that the black kids are bad, which is not true and that is where prejudice comes in. Some of the children when asked why they choose the black kid as the "bad" kid answered " Because he looks different than me" this could be because the children with this answer is to young to understand we are all the same, regardless of race we are all human. The older children had better answers than the younger ones like the one girl that said all the different colored children were good looking. This could be that older kids understand that we are all the same, well equal humans anyway. I still think society plays a big role on the decisions though because like I said before kids pick up on their surroundings and hear things that their parents might say about another race, so they take those views as well.
ReplyDeleteB.O.N007
The doll test showed very clearly that there is still a race problem in society today. When 66% of white children labeled the "black" child as the bad one, the mean one, the dumb one, etc. i was shocked. I did not realize that race was such a big problem still, even today. I grew up in a small town and I have two mulatto step-siblings. I currently have two mulatto foster children right now, to me race is not a thing that I look at but with this video I realized that while I may not see it that my foster children do. Violet comments on the race of people all the time, when we are watching movies, shopping, out to dinner, at church. No matter where we are she makes comments like "He's white" and while she is not doing it out of spite or from a racist point of view it still bothers us. We rebut her comments by saying that race does not matter and we expose her to my family as often as possible saying that you don't have to be the same color to be part of the same family. I know that she has grown up with her biological parents making a big deal out of race, as told to us by them however with it looking like a termination of the parents rights and us adopting them we are trying to drive home that family isn't just blood, family is love, shared experiences, and most importantly a choice. Violet and Dash don't have to choose to be of our family once they are adults but we are going to instill in them the best values we can while we are their parents. Yes race is still a big deal to some people, but it doesn't have to be.
ReplyDeletehello_sweetie007
Race is still a problem and I think that there will always be a little racism everywhere in the world because of where we started. It is getting better, although, I think that children need to be exposed to the problems and understand what racism is and that it is not okay. I think that our society is treating kids more grown up than before and if we are going to test our 4 and 5 year olds on racism then they should be able to be talked to about the issue and I think that starting the awareness at a young age can really make a difference. Undecided007
DeleteI am not surprise about what I saw in the video because I had bad experience about racism when I was kid. That’s why I but all the responsibility on the parents and school because the kids are trying to apply what they have learned at home or school. In addition to the impact of the principles of religion on the behavior of individuals, then we find the customs and tradition as well as. I also think that there is intolerance of whites and blacks and the mutual. In my opinion the solution is correct the concepts among children in the school and television through animation and education system. Hassan007
ReplyDeleteI think that the test results are surprising because the white kids chose the black child to be bad, dumb, and not looked upon well by adults. And the black kids chose the white child to be mean or bad. The older children were more accepting in this study. I think that the younger kids see how adults act in public and hear what they say about other races and they automatically make their parents’ thoughts their own because they are so young. The older children know more about race because they have probably been talked to about the issue by their parents or at school. This test does show how kids react to what their parents expose them to but I don’t think that it is accurate to test young children who don’t really know what to think. Parents need to be cautious about what they do and say in front of their children, especially when it comes to race. Undecided007
ReplyDeleteThe doll test was very intriguing to watch. The video said half of the tests were done in northern states and the other half were performed in southern states. I am curious as to whether or not there was more racial bias in either the northern or southern states. I also noticed that there were 2 age groups that were tested. The younger kids seemed to think that the tone of skin that was not their own meant that the child depicted was bad or mean. As showed, the older kids did not seem to pick a certain side as much as the younger kids. I believe that the younger kids did not really know how to respond to the questions. As stated by the first mother, "We have never really talked about race." So these kids who have never really talked about race are being asked racial questions, and maybe they are just going with a "safe" answer? But, the older kids who have more education and experience with socialization, knew how to respond and maybe even why the tests were being done. This could prove to be a fault in the tests because the older kids could be more inclined to lie because they know what is right and wrong, and the younger kids give honest answers. Either way this shows that there still is an issue regarding racial bias even in young ages. Perhaps more education and talks are needed to show children that we are all individuals and are all the same. Even if the tone of our skin is different.
ReplyDelete-Moto007