Effects of Confirmatory and Contradictory Stimuli and Development on Children's Intergroup Attribution

Abstract

Intergroup attributional differences were investigated among Canadian children at three developmental levels who received confirmatory and contradictory stimuli about ingroup and outgroup individuals. Participants were 83 public school students divided into three levels of social attribution development. An intergroup attribution questionnaire assessed the degree of internality of participants' explanations of the success and failure of ingroup and outgroup members. Results indicated that the participants responded differently to stimuli that confirmed ethnocentric assumptions than they responded to stimuli that contradicted these assumptions. The precise nature of the responses, however, depended on the developmental level of the participant: Whereas younger children tended to use attributions that favored the ethnic ingroup, older children actually used attributions that favored the outgroup.