Can Babies Discern Between Races

May 4th, 2012

Gizmodo links to a study that suggests that not even infants are color-blind:

The results showed that 5-month-olds performed consistently across all races, while 9-months-olds identified faces and emotions better when it came to their own race. The researchers point out that the processing of facial emotions seems to shift location in the brain during this early stage of life—and suggest that this is what’s responsible for the change. Lisa Scott, one of the researchers, explains to Live Science:

“These results suggest that biases in face recognition and perception begin in preverbal infants, well before concepts about race are formed. It is important for us to understand the nature of these biases in order to reduce or eliminate [them].”