Examining the Socialization of Bias Against White and Black Gender Nonconforming Children

Children’s consistently show a preference for gender conforming peers over their gender nonconforming counterparts, but whether these biases vary by race and to what extent adults’ expressed prejudice influences children’s existing biases is unclear. Participants (N=139, ages 3-11) demonstrated intersectional biases, such that the social penalty for gender nonconformity was greatest for White boys (vs. Black boys) and Black girls (vs. White girls). However, when a hypothetical adult expressed prejudice against gender nonconformity, participants only demonstrated more bias against gender nonconforming peers and ignored the race of the hypothetical gender nonconforming peer. These findings suggest that learning an influential adult is prejudiced exerts immediate influence on children’s peer attitudes and may solidify their bias. These results further suggest that making one social category salient may suppress considerations of other categories in children’s social evaluations.