Gender differences in discrimination emerge early in life: Evidence from primary school children in a bilingual city

•We study discrimination preferences of preschool children.•Our study utilizes a setting where language forms natural in- and out-groups.•We show that males discriminate more than females.

We report the decisions of 824 young children who allocated a fixed endowment between two other children where only one spoke the same language as the decision maker. We show that boys are more likely to discriminate against the out-group.