Children Absorb Anti-Muslim Prejudice at an Early Age [PSMag.com]

We are doing a great job of passing our prejudices down to our kids.

That’s the key takeaway from a newly published study, which finds considerable bias against Arab Muslims among Americans between the ages of six and 11.

Arab Muslims — whether described as American citizens or immigrants— were seen in negative, stereotyped terms, in spite of the fact only 11 percent of the kids knew the word “Muslim” referred to a religion. Negative assumptions predated even rudimentary knowledge of the topic.

“Children appear to be absorbing culturally biased messages, even without fully understanding the basis for those messages,” writes a research team led by psychologistChristia Spears Brown of the University of Kentucky. “Even children with little explicit knowledge of Arab Muslims endorsed culturally held stereotypes similar to adults.”

[For more of this story, written by Tom Jacobs, go to https://psmag.com/children-abs...08f617535#.6r12jm3ov]