Here is an interesting article:
Prejudice at Age 6
By age 6, many kids are well schooled in societal prejudice. In fact, children associate white workers with higher status jobs.
By age 6, many kids are well schooled in societal prejudice. In a study, researchers interviewed 92 African-American first- and sixth-graders from varying socioeconomic backgrounds about job status and their own interest in particular occupations.
Children from all economic backgrounds associated white workers with jobs that they saw as higher in status. Furthermore, when asked about unfamiliar and even imaginary jobs such as a "tenic," someone who organizes and marks handicapped parking spaces, children rated careers pictured with white workers above those depicted with black workers or a mixed group.
"It's troubling that children in our society take race as something that defines the status, importance, and pay of jobs," says Lynn S. Liben, professor of psychology at Pennsylvania State University and coauthor of the study, published in Developmental Psychology.
Liben also found that poor children in the sixth-grade group showed less interest in high status jobs such as a doctor or airline pilot, which they saw as occupied primarily by whites. She speculates that underprivileged children in particular may "self-select" away from high status jobs because they assume a lack of access to the education and resources needed to attain them.
By the age of 11 or so, a child will finally be able to understand abstract concepts like politics and religion — though the age and the understanding differs from person to person. However, by then (age 11) it may be too late. The socialistic, familial, and otherwise biases imposed on him or her might have already made an impression that would last a lifetime. There are some (like me) who can break free from these kinds of social constructs of opinion and form their own, even if basing off of those around them and what they have been taught, experiences, and shoved into their minds.
I will be writing more on society — and individual opinions — soon. I've been busy lately but will try hard to post some this weekend.
technorati tags: children, psychology, science, society, social, opinion, prejudice, race,
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