The Devaluation by Children of their Own National and Ethnic Group: Two Case Studies

In a previous study, conducted in several European countries with children between the ages of 6 and 11, it was found that the subjects expressed a preference for people whom they assumed to be nationals of their own country in a photograph‐sorting task. One exception to the general pattern of results was found in the data obtained with Scottish children from Glasgow who did not express a preference for their own nationals. The present paper reports two further studies conducted in Glasgow, one in Oxford and one in Haifa. The common purpose of these studies was to test the hypothesis that, even in situations which are not characterized by intense intergroup tensions and/or by a clear ‘visibility’ of differences between groups (as in the case of the Scots and the English or of Israeli Jews of ‘European’ and of ‘Oriental’ origin), the children are sensitive to subtle social influences which lead to a ‘devaluation’ of their own group as compared with an outgroup conceived in some sense to be ‘dominant’ or ‘superior’. This hypothesis was confirmed. The implications of the data are discussed in relation to the general literature on the attitudes towards their own group held by children who are members of racial and ethnic groups which are underprivileged.