Infant Behavior
Conditions
Brief summary
This study will examine whether infants view race as an inductively useful social cue to predict third-party social relationships.
Detailed description
Based on findings that infants expect more affiliation between same language speakers than different language speakers (i.e., infants will look longer at affiliation between different language speakers than same language speakers), this study will assess whether infants' expectations about intra- and inter-racial interactions will also follow the same pattern as language. After informed consent, participants who meet the eligibility requirements will be randomized into one of the 3 conditions: Watching (1) two White adults affiliating and disengaging, (2) two Black adults affiliating and disengaging, and (3) one White and one Black adults affiliating and disengaging.
Interventions
OTHERBasic Science
This is a basic science experiment to test whether infants' looking time to video stimuli differ according to the race of the individuals shown.
Sponsors
University of Chicago
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
8 Months to 14 Months
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* full term (at least 37 weeks at birth) * no known developmental delays
Exclusion criteria
* not full term (less than 37 weeks at birth) * known developmental delays
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | After the infants completed the study (which lasted about 10 minutes), two coders viewed the video recording of the session to measure infants' looking at the affiliation and disengagement stimuli. | Infants' looking time to affiliation vs. disengagement stimuli was measured by two coders blind to the condition that infants were assigned to. Then, the values from each coders were compared and if there was disagreement, after discussion one value was selected. Thus, the reported outcome is the single value that both coders produced or agreed upon values from the two coders. |
Countries
United States
Participant flow
Recruitment details
Infants were recruited and tested through an online platform called Lookit (lookit.mit.edu), a website developed by MIT researchers to test infants from the comforts of their homes.
Pre-assignment details
No participants were excluded before assignment to arm.
Participants by arm
| Arm | Count |
|---|---|
| White-White Infants will first view 4 familiarization trials, in which the two adults each take turns waving and saying a short sentence. Each trial will last 10.5s. Which adult speaks first and which side she appears on will be counterbalanced. These familiarization trials will ensure infants encode each person separately. Then infants will watch 6 test trials (3 affiliation and 3 disengagement). The test trials will alternate, and the order will be counterbalanced across infants. In affiliation trials, the two adults will say hello and wave, whereas in the disengagement trials, the two adults will say hmph, and turn away from each other. Both affiliation and disengagement will have the same length (3s), with actors maintaining the same distance from each other throughout the video. The procedure will be identical for all arms except in White-White arm, the two adults infants see will be two White adults.
Basic Science: This is a basic science experiment to test whether infants' looking time to video stimuli differ according to the race of the individuals shown. | 43 |
| Black-Black The procedure is identical to the White-White arm except the two adults infants see will be two Black adults.
Basic Science: This is a basic science experiment to test whether infants' looking time to video stimuli differ according to the race of the individuals shown. | 43 |
| Black-White The procedure is identical to the White-White arm except the two adults infants see will be one White and one Black adult.
Basic Science: This is a basic science experiment to test whether infants' looking time to video stimuli differ according to the race of the individuals shown. | 42 |
| Total | 128 |
Baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | Black-White | Black-Black | White-White | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, Continuous | 327.64 days STANDARD_DEVIATION 69.89 | 336.33 days STANDARD_DEVIATION 64.06 | 333.09 days STANDARD_DEVIATION 72.66 | 332.39 days STANDARD_DEVIATION 68.51 |
| Race (NIH/OMB) American Indian or Alaska Native | 0 Participants | 0 Participants | 1 Participants | 1 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Asian | 7 Participants | 7 Participants | 6 Participants | 20 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Black or African American | 0 Participants | 1 Participants | 1 Participants | 2 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) More than one race | 6 Participants | 6 Participants | 7 Participants | 19 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0 Participants | 0 Participants | 0 Participants | 0 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) Unknown or Not Reported | 0 Participants | 1 Participants | 0 Participants | 1 Participants |
| Race (NIH/OMB) White | 29 Participants | 28 Participants | 28 Participants | 85 Participants |
| Region of Enrollment United States | 42 Participants | 43 Participants | 43 Participants | 128 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Female | 17 Participants | 19 Participants | 22 Participants | 58 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Male | 25 Participants | 24 Participants | 21 Participants | 70 Participants |
Adverse events
| Event type | EG000 affected / at risk | EG001 affected / at risk | EG002 affected / at risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| deaths Total, all-cause mortality | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
| other Total, other adverse events | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
| serious Total, serious adverse events | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 | 0 / 0 |
Outcome results
Primary
Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition
Infants' looking time to affiliation vs. disengagement stimuli was measured by two coders blind to the condition that infants were assigned to. Then, the values from each coders were compared and if there was disagreement, after discussion one value was selected. Thus, the reported outcome is the single value that both coders produced or agreed upon values from the two coders.
Time frame: After the infants completed the study (which lasted about 10 minutes), two coders viewed the video recording of the session to measure infants' looking at the affiliation and disengagement stimuli.
Population: We ended up excluding 38 infants from the 128 infants we recruited due to technical issues (e.g., no video of infant in the study produced or infants' study video was cut off due to internet speed), parental/family interference (e.g., parents spoke during the study or siblings interrupted), and due to infant crying and not completing the study. Thus, after exclusion, the final data sample we analyzed is 90 infants.
| Arm | Measure | Group | Value (MEAN) | Dispersion |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White-White | Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | Avg looking at affiliation | 10.72 seconds | Standard Deviation 3.27 |
| White-White | Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | Avg looking at disengagement | 9.53 seconds | Standard Deviation 3.1 |
| Black-Black | Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | Avg looking at affiliation | 10.07 seconds | Standard Deviation 3.2 |
| Black-Black | Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | Avg looking at disengagement | 10.20 seconds | Standard Deviation 2.45 |
| Black-White | Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | Avg looking at affiliation | 10.99 seconds | Standard Deviation 3.56 |
| Black-White | Participants' Average Time Spent Looking at Stimuli According to Condition | Avg looking at disengagement | 9.65 seconds | Standard Deviation 3.52 |
Comparison: We will examine whether looking time at affiliation will be greater when looking at Black-White interactions than at White-White or Black-Black interactions. That is, we will test if infants will be more surprised (look longer) by affiliation between different-race people interacting than same race people interacting. We will conduct a mixed ANOVA with conditions (Black-White, White-White, Black-Black) as a between-subject and test type (affiliation vs. disengagement) as within-subject factors.p-value: <0.05ANOVA