Black or White? Ethnic Stereotypes and Prejudicial Attitudes in Italian Children

The purpose of this study was to explore ethnic stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes in 368 Italian children aged 4-12. The ethnic traits choice (35 cards) and the ethnic jobs choice (32 cards) to attribute to photos of Black or White target child were used to analyze ethnic stereotypes. The choice of best friend, playmate, addressee of a toy, and attribution of pen stealing to photos of Black target child, White target child or both target children were used to study ethnic prejudicial attitudes.Resultsabove 50% of children chose White target children as best friends, both target children as playmates, and Black target children as authors of pen stealing, in all cases with significant differences for age. Children mainly attributed positive traits to White target children (e.g. honest) while negative traits to Black target children (e.g. ignorant) and assigned jobs linked to very lowly relevant activities to Black target children (e.g. house servant).