Teaching Inclusiveness via TV Narratives in the US

Abstract

The central hypothesis was that children's interpretations of pro-tolerance TV content explain why such content may be ineffective or counterproductive. The goal was to examine whether comprehension and ensuing attitudes could be improved by adding short explanatory inserts. A total of 128 children aged 4–6 were randomly assigned to watch one of two episodes depicting initial hostility followed by friendliness (either with or without inserts), or to watch a control episode unrelated to tolerance. There were significant effects of the inserts, but also of the episodes. For one of the episodes, there were no significant differences in inclusiveness relative to the control group unless the inserts were included; for the other, there were significant negative effects on inclusiveness unless the inserts were included. Children's interpretations of the content mediated the effects of inserts and episode on levels of inclusiveness.

Keywords:

• children
• moral
• prejudice
• television
• tolerance

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the following undergraduate students who helped with data collection: Anne Albrecht, Laura Hayes, Katie Monk, and Therese Wenzel.

Notes

^1. There are numerous possible ways of scoring these choices. One option would be to assess the number and rank of all outgroup choices but this is problematic because for minority participants this score would include choice of White classmates. In the context of US history, minorities' interest in having White classmates is not considered to be as positive as Whites' interest in having minority classmates.

^2. As a reviewer noted, same-gender preferences in early childhood are typically considered less problematic than same-race or pro-White preferences, in large part because they are considered less predictive of adult attitudes. Gender and ethnic preferences are also not parallel constructs for other reasons such as the dichotomy of gender compared to the multidimensionality of race/ethnicity. However, both heterogeneity measures are ordinal measures of preferences allowing us to examine whether preferences changed with viewing condition.

^3. The twenty programs were Arthur, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Winx, Ni Hao Kai-lan, Dora the Explorer, Fetch!, Sagwa, Maya & Miguel, Larry Boy Stories, Go Diego Go!, Sesame Street, The Berenstain Bears, Clifford the Big Red Dog, VeggieTales, Barney & Friends, Dragon Tales, Postcards from Buster, Between the Lions, Franny's Feet, Jane and the Dragon.