LAUSR

Significance Anti-Black racism remains a pervasive crisis in the United States. Understanding the psychological processes and developmental mechanisms underlying the formation of racist thoughts and actions is one important step toward redressing this injustice. Here, White children’s (4 to 8 years) exposure to and beliefs about racial inequalities predicted the development of anti-Black bias. For children with more exposure to racial inequality, those who believed that racial inequalities are caused by intrinsic differences between people were more likely to hold racial biases, whereas those who recognized the extrinsic factors underlying racial inequalities held more egalitarian attitudes. These findings are particularly important in light of legislation in several states banning discussions of the societal factors underlying racial inequalities from children’s classrooms.