Collaborative Research: From Culture to Child: How collective perceptions of affective divergence shape interracial relationships in middle childhood

美国社会的种族隔离、紧张局势和歧视依然存在。这个项目研究了种族不和谐是如何从文化传播到儿童的。这个项目使用了一个新的范式来研究儿童电视上对种族间不和谐的微妙但反复出现的描述是如何导致儿童在儿童中期（7到10岁）种族间关系的侵蚀的。拟议的研究不仅旨在确定儿童之间种族间不和的原因，而且可能为改善儿童种族间关系的媒体干预提供信息。这个项目关注的是跨种族互动中情感不和谐的电视描述，这是种族偏见的一个潜在文化来源。一项初步研究记录了儿童电视节目是如何始终如一地描述同种族互动中“共同”的情感表达，而不是跨种族互动。暴露于这种情感差异模式可能会影响儿童的跨种族信仰和行为。在三个拟议的实验中，研究者使用文化快照范式来检验这种因果关系。7至10岁的儿童被随机分配观看简短的电视片段，其中描绘了(a)情感分歧，(b)情感趋同（同一种族和跨种族互动中的共同情感），或(c)没有人类（对照组）。暴露于情感分歧（相对于其他条件）预计会导致儿童经历种族间同理心减少和对种族间互动的负面期望增加。研究人员预测，后一种影响将导致儿童对其他种族同伴的支持和友好行为减少。研究小组还将评估调节变量和中介变量，允许对这一一般预测进行细致入微的假设检验。最终，这些研究寻求关于儿童种族不和谐的原因和减少这种不和谐的潜在手段的关键信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Racial segregation, tension, and discrimination continue to persist in U.S. society. This project examines how racial discord may spread from culture to child. This project uses a new paradigm to examine how subtle--but recurring--depictions of interracial discord on children’s television contribute to the erosion of children’s interracial relationships in middle childhood (7 to 10 years of age). The proposed studies not only aim to identify a cause of interracial discord among children but may also inform media based interventions for improving children’s interracial relationships.This project focuses on televised depictions of emotional discord in cross-race interactions as one potential cultural source of racial bias. A preliminary study documented how children’s television programming consistently depicts "shared" expressions of emotion in same-race interactions but not cross-race interactions. Exposure to this pattern of affective divergence may influence children's interracial beliefs and behaviors. In three proposed experiments, the investigators test this causal relationship using the cultural snapshots paradigm. Children between 7 and 10 years of age are randomly assigned to view brief television clips depicting (a) affective divergence, (b) affective convergence (shared emotion in both same-race and cross-race interactions), or (c) no humans (control). Exposure to affective divergence (relative to other conditions) is expected to cause children to experience reduced interracial empathy and increased negative expectations for interracial interactions. The researchers predict that this latter effect will cause reductions in children’s supportive and friendly behaviors toward other-race peers. The research team will also assess moderator and mediator variables, allowing for nuanced hypothesis-tests of this general prediction. Ultimately, these studies seek critical information about the causes of racial discord in children and a potential means for reducing such discord.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.