all social animals and human societies, including the hunter-gatherer groups that are descendants of people that predated the Jews, hate some individuals and love others. Prejudice, though often based on deep seated ideological biases and stereotypes that humans invent, is, at root, a form of partiality. Every social animal expresses partiality. This is a highly adaptive and ancient psychology, promoting the care of young, investment in mates, and escape strategies against enemies. Humans are no different, except for the role that our unique brains play in fueling partiality with ideology and symbolism. Sometimes when we express our partiality it is for the noble cause of caring for our children and for defending ideological beliefs surrounding humanitarian causes, including defense of basic human rights. Sometimes when we express our partiality, it is for the ignoble cause of destroying others. In this section, I explain how human partiality works, from its earliest incarnation in infancy to its most articulated and culturally developed form in adulthood 31 .
At birth, newborns prefer to listen to people speaking their native language over those speaking another language. Soon thereafter, infants prefer to listen to their native dialect over a non-native dialect, and look longer at people from their own race than those from another race. This suggests that prior to any significant cultural indoctrination, infants can discriminate between different languages, dialects, and racial groups — all markers of group identity. But do they care about these differences? Do they form social preferences based on these distinctions? Would a young baby prefer to take a toy from an unfamiliar person who speaks the same or different language, from the same or different race? To answer these questions, the developmental psychologist Katharine Kinzler gave five months old babies a test.
Babies born into families of one race and one language sat on their mother’s lap in front of two monitors, each presenting short video clips of different people. After watching the videos, Kinzler created a bit of magic. The people in the monitor appeared to emerge from the image and offer the baby a toy. The trick: a real person, hidden beneath the monitor, synchronized her reach with the reach in the monitor. Who would the baby choose given that both people offered the same toy? Babies grabbed the toy from people speaking the native over non-native language and the native-accent over the non-native accent, but showed no preference for the native race. Thus, early in life the connection between discrimination and social preference is well established for language, but not for race. When do things change for race?
Kinzler carried out another series of experiments on race with one group of two and a half-year old children and a second group of five-year olds. Though these two age groups required different methods, both focused on the child’s preferences, including who they would share toys with and who they would prefer as friends. The two and a half year olds showed no preferences, whereas the five year olds preferred their own race. Race is therefore a slowly developing category, at least in terms of its impact on social preferences, and especially when contrasted with both language and accent.
Kinzler took these studies one step further to ask: What’s more important to a young child building an inner sanctum of trusted others — race or language? Would they rather interact with someone of the same race who speaks a foreign language or someone of a different race who speaks the native language? Using similar procedures, Kinzler showed that by five years of age, language trumps race. Children would rather interact with someone from a different race speaking the same language than someone of the same race speaking a foreign language.
Why would language trump race? Kinzler’s answer relies on an idea developed by the evolutionary psychologist Robert
At birth, newborns prefer to listen to people speaking their native language over those speaking another language. Soon thereafter, infants prefer to listen to their native dialect over a non-native dialect, and look longer at people from their own race than those from another race. This suggests that prior to any significant cultural indoctrination, infants can discriminate between different languages, dialects, and racial groups — all markers of group identity. But do they care about these differences? Do they form social preferences based on these distinctions? Would a young baby prefer to take a toy from an unfamiliar person who speaks the same or different language, from the same or different race? To answer these questions, the developmental psychologist Katharine Kinzler gave five months old babies a test.
Babies born into families of one race and one language sat on their mother’s lap in front of two monitors, each presenting short video clips of different people. After watching the videos, Kinzler created a bit of magic. The people in the monitor appeared to emerge from the image and offer the baby a toy. The trick: a real person, hidden beneath the monitor, synchronized her reach with the reach in the monitor. Who would the baby choose given that both people offered the same toy? Babies grabbed the toy from people speaking the native over non-native language and the native-accent over the non-native accent, but showed no preference for the native race. Thus, early in life the connection between discrimination and social preference is well established for language, but not for race. When do things change for race?
Kinzler carried out another series of experiments on race with one group of two and a half-year old children and a second group of five-year olds. Though these two age groups required different methods, both focused on the child’s preferences, including who they would share toys with and who they would prefer as friends. The two and a half year olds showed no preferences, whereas the five year olds preferred their own race. Race is therefore a slowly developing category, at least in terms of its impact on social preferences, and especially when contrasted with both language and accent.
Kinzler took these studies one step further to ask: What’s more important to a young child building an inner sanctum of trusted others — race or language? Would they rather interact with someone of the same race who speaks a foreign language or someone of a different race who speaks the native language? Using similar procedures, Kinzler showed that by five years of age, language trumps race. Children would rather interact with someone from a different race speaking the same language than someone of the same race speaking a foreign language.
Why would language trump race? Kinzler’s answer relies on an idea developed by the evolutionary psychologist Robert
Similar Books
