Even Babies Can Be Racist, Says New Study

Children as young as 9 months can exhibit racist behavior

In the last few years, studies have been released indicating how everyone from dogs to young grade school children can be racist.

Now, a new study released shows that even infants can display racist behavior at the tender age of 9-months old.

The study, done by researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, focuses on the facial recognition of 9-month old babies. While they aren't born with biases, they are better able to recognize facial and emotional expressions of people of their race. At five months old, they aren't able to.

They analyzed 48 Caucasian babies with little to no experience of African-American or black individuals.

The study's findings are supported by brain activity measurements since 9 month olds can't say racial slurs.

"These results suggest that biases in face recognition and perception begin in preverbal infants, well before concepts about race are formed," said study leader Lisa Scott in a statement.

"It is important for us to understand the nature of these biases in order to reduce or eliminate [the biases]."

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