Racist Babies? Nine-Month-Olds Show Bias When Looking At Faces, Study Shows

By: Wynne Parry, LiveScience Senior Writer
Published: 05/04/2012 09:51 AM EDT on LiveScience

Adults have more difficulty recognizing faces that belong to people of another race, and this deficit appears to start early.

New research indicates that by the time they are 9 months old, babies are better able to recognize faces and emotional expressions of people who belong to the group they interact with most, than they are those of people who belong to another race.

Babies don't start out this way; younger infants appear equally able to tell people apart, regardless of race.

"These results suggest that biases in face recognition and perception begin in preverbal infants, well before concepts about race are formed. It is important for us to understand the nature of these biases in order to reduce or eliminate [the biases]," said study researcher Lisa Scott, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in a statement. [3-Year-Olds Fancy Own Ethnic Group]

In the study, 48 Caucasian infants were given the task of differentiating between faces of their own race and faces that belonged to another, unfamiliar, race. In another experiment, sensors placed on the babies' heads detected brain activity when the babies saw images of faces of Caucasian or African-American races expressing emotions that either matched or did not match sounds they heard, such as laughing and crying.

While 5-month-olds were equally able to distinguish faces from different races, 9-month-olds fared better with their own race. Likewise, brain-activity measurements showed the 9-month-olds processed emotional expressions among Caucasian faces differently than those of African-American faces, while the 5-month-olds did not.

Specifically, a shift was seen between 5 months and 9 months of age, whereby processing of facial emotions moved from the front of the brain to regions in the back of the brain in the older age group, the researchers found. This brain shift will help scientists understand just how the brain develops with regard to their experiences with different races during the first year of life, Scott and colleagues report in a study published in the May issue of the journal Developmental Science.

You can follow LiveScience writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

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Comments

[CP2012]

04:54 PM on 06/01/2012

This just may be the dumbest thing I have ever read! Stop with these studies and do something useful!

[gomezrules]

09:09 PM on 05/23/2012

How soon before this admin accuses these babies of hate crimes?

[gomezrules]

12:26 AM on 05/23/2012

Who pays for this tripe? And how come it's only Caucasian babies used? Sounds like yet another pre-determined conclusion that had a 'study' put together to (ahem) 'prove' it. This is just more of the obsession with race that some will use for advancing their political or societal agendas at some time in the future.

[10181854]

05:18 PM on 06/01/2012

Honey how well I know studies have always reveal negativity.

[anon non]

02:22 PM on 05/12/2012

the excerpt: "babies are better able to recognize faces and emotional expressions of people who belong to the group they interact with most, than they are those of people who belong to another race." seems to be misleading. if you raised a white baby that interacted with all black babies, would they then have difficulty interpreting white babies faces? its all still conditioned, if you ask me.

[Glory Mooncalled]

10:54 PM on 05/08/2012

Did someone not know that we evolved from tribes that mistrusted and killed any neighboring tribes because they competed with resources? Different is bad. Sure, we're trying to change now but we're fighting millions of years of evolution. Of course babies have SOME sort of racism. We can all LEARN to be better people and overcome our subconscious but babies haven't had that chance yet.

[ima062002]

08:12 PM on 08/26/2012

Being able to recognize your own kind (regardless of who they are, it's just the people you interact with the most iwith) is hardly racist.

[ExtraCover]

01:31 PM on 05/08/2012

Title misleading!

The reason at 9-months old babies can recognize and identify emotions of their own race better is because they interact with people their own raise i.e. Mom and Dad.

If suppose say, a baby from race A is adopted by parents of race B, and at 9-months old the baby recognize and identify emotions of people of race A (same as the babies) better than race B, then the title maybe accurate.

[rleduffe]

01:50 PM on 05/08/2012

"Title misleading!"

Nothing new for HP. And you're right. Seems some of this "logic" is flawed, and doesn't seem to take into account any external influential circumstances.

[icey27]

11:32 PM on 05/07/2012

If this study is were true why did they make sure to put a dark skin black baby with kinky hair in between to white babies? Why didn't they use an asian baby or spanish baby.Sounds to me like they only used black babies.

[rleduffe]

01:55 PM on 05/08/2012

The image inside the article is possibly just a stock photo, and completely unrelated to the actual study.

[colorofpolitics]

08:12 PM on 05/07/2012

This article has nothing to do with racism...MISLEADING, SALACIOUS & STUPID headline....

[ResidentPragmatist]

11:20 AM on 05/09/2012

Agreed. I refuse to even entertain the idea that 5 or 9 month old babies can even be racist. Racism implies intent and a willful thought process. Babies are just recognizing familiarity. Stupid article, Huff Po.

[DiamondInTheRaw2]

12:55 PM on 05/07/2012

Really?

[Wanderland]

12:00 PM on 05/07/2012

I'd like to nominate the headline of this article ("Racist Babies? Nine-Month-Olds Show...") for the coveted Nonsensical Headline of the Month award.

[Perceptions]

04:46 PM on 05/07/2012

I AGREE. What a waste!

[BiancaGQ]

11:54 AM on 05/07/2012

This study is garbage and so is this article.

[Da Rippa]

11:11 AM on 05/07/2012

This is crack pot science. Why not test 48 black babies, 48 Asian babies, 48 Latino babies, 48 Jewish babies and see if you get the same data. So their saying Caucasians are born racist? It's just a familiarity thing. Babies don't care about race. They only care about love, and who gives it to them. They only become racially aware from society. When they ask"mom why do I look different than you and dad?"

[Wanderland]

12:01 PM on 05/07/2012

It's not crackpot science, but crackpot headline writing.

[The Ogre]

01:22 PM on 05/07/2012

The headline is misleading, no doubt.

I agree that babies do not "care" about race. They only care about food and shelter. Period. Children have absolutely no ability to empathize, even on the most basic level, until they reach 4-6 years.

But you have missed the point of the study. If babies process faces differently, starting by 9 months of age, that is relevant information, in my opinion.

By the way, Latinos and Jews are not races of people, they are cultural groups. They can be of any race. Don't use false equivalencies in your arguments.

I would venture to guess that the researchers believe all babies develop biases in the process of facial recognition by age 9 months. Not that "Caucasians are born racist," as you put it.

[ResidentPragmatist]

11:22 AM on 05/09/2012

I get that Jewish is a religious/cultural group and not a race, but Latinos? You don't think that Latin is a race?

[BiggpussJr]

10:30 AM on 05/07/2012

HuffPost at it again. When there is no racism in the news HuffPost will find something "racist". Except this doesnt show racism it shows familiarity. Pretty sad huffpost, pretty sad.

[BiggpussJr]

10:28 AM on 05/07/2012

.....so that kid in the carseat DID give me the finger this morning. I knew it!!!!!

[covenant45]

01:38 AM on 05/08/2012

"great minds are not immune to silliness" - Haki Madhabuti

[BiggpussJr]

08:19 AM on 05/08/2012

You NEVER went out did you? I think all you did was read and study.. Not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all.

[cummingskristi]

08:14 AM on 05/07/2012

I wouldn't call this racism. I would call this a question of the familiar. Babies aren't exposed to that many people while they are so young. If the people they are exposed to are predominately of one race, that is what they are going to respond to.