Development of Social Categorization and Intergroup Attitudes

What is the influence of context on the development of racial categorization and intergroup perception in 3- to 6-year-old children? This question guides my work on the interplay between social context and intergroup relations, during the pivotal early childhood years. Social categorization strongly shapes how individuals perceive, think, and behave toward their ingroup and other groups. The perception of racial differences is particularly context-dependent: familiarity and individual experience influence whether a child considers race a meaningful categorization criterion. Belonging to a minority or marginalized group heightens the cognitive salience of race — yet a group can be a majority in society while being a minority in a given context, such as a highly diverse school. What happens, then, to children who belong to a racially marginalized group, but attend a school where they are the numerical majority? I explored these theoretical questions in a note published in Frontiers in Psychology (2021).

Several studies in the French school context. I examined how group membership and relative group size influence racial categorization and the perception of cultural distance, comparing children from marginalized or non-marginalized groups, in minority, majority, or numerically balanced positions within their school. Older children categorized more strongly by race — a well-known developmental trajectory — and this effect was strongest in schools where children from marginalized groups made up a substantial share of the student population. On cultural distance perception, all children perceived Black and North African children as culturally more distant than a White child — except in schools with balanced group composition, suggesting that a favorable school context can partially offset the asymmetric power relations present in broader society.

Two studies in conflictual contexts (Lebanon and Romania). These contexts, marked by visible exclusion and asymmetric power relations, remain understudied in developmental psychology. A first study showed a strong preference among children for a valued outgroup (French) and consistent rejection of a stigmatized outgroup (Syrians in Lebanon, Roma in Romania), even among the youngest participants. A second study, in which only the group label varied (physical appearance held constant), eliminated the preference for the valued outgroup — but rejection of the stigmatized outgroup persisted, showing that a label alone is enough to trigger exclusion.

These findings highlight the strength of early biases against stigmatized groups and young children’s sensitivity to social labels, beyond visual cues alone. Understanding how this development varies across contexts is a crucial first step toward designing interventions to reduce these biases from early childhood on, and toward equipping education professionals to integrate diversity socialization practices into schools.

Related Publications

(Gedeon, 2022) (Gedeon et al., 2024) (Gedeon et al., 2026) (Gedeon et al., 2021)