Can You Show Me A Mommy And A Daddy? Are Parental Labels Associated With Unfamiliar White And Black Faces?
Understanding which factors affect early language behaviors provides a glimpse into how infants think about the world. As such, looking at simple linguistic labels can be the key to understanding complex behaviors and perceptions. Infants associate the labels “mommy” and “daddy” with their own caregivers by the age of six months but generalize these terms to gender roles by 24 months of age. This association suggests that the labels “mommy” and “daddy” are strongly connected to early category formation. However, it is unclear whether infants associate between these linguistic labels and the race of potentially corresponding faces. Investigators tested this open question with a forced choice task, showing infants 11-24 months (N = 56) images of unfamiliar Black and White female and male faces while asking infants to select a “mommy” and a “daddy.” Caregiver race and infant age were analyzed to see if they were predictive of infants’ face selections. Age was a significant predictor of which face the infants chose as the “mommy” or “daddy.” Infants were 6.7% (95% CI [0.04, 0.09]) more likely to choose the face that matched their caregivers’ races with every one-month increase in age. These findings may suggest that infants factor race into their understanding of groups and social categories.