Toddlers' response to different race strangers: Developing a virtual paradigm

There is a growing interest in developmental psychology to understand the source of the tendency to prefer those similar to us (ingroup) and to dislike those who are different from us (outgroup). Previous studies concerning the origins of ingroup biases have shown the sensitivity to social categories emerges early in life, and even toddlers are able to detect social categories like race. This study explores whether toddlers will engage with a stranger over Zoom, as well as how toddlers react to two different race experimenters (one White and one East Asian experimenters). In the first experiment, we found that toddlers respond and engage with a stranger over Zoom and in the second experiment, we found preliminary evidence that toddlers engaged more with the racial outgroup experimenter, which is surprising considering previous studies that suggest racial ingroup biases may start in infancy. Our findings suggest that more racially diverse populations need to be tested to fully understand how toddlers react to different race strangers.