Prior research has suggested that bilingual children demonstrate reduced social bias relative to their monolingual peers. In particular, they exhibit less implicit bias against racial outgroups. However, the cognitive determinants of racial bias in bilingual children remain unclear. In the current study, relationships between racial bias and three cognitive factors (inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and perspective-taking ability), along with language proficiency and parental education, were investigated in a sample of bilingual preschoolers (N = 55). Children were bilingual learners of English and Mandarin. Results demonstrated that implicit bias was predicted by cognitive flexibility, independent of variation in inhibitory control, second language vocabulary, perspective taking, and parental education. In contrast, explicit bias was predicted by parental education alone and not by cognitive or linguistic factors. Findings suggest that increased cognitive flexibility, often thought to be an outgrowth of bilingual experience, may also be associated with a reduction in implicit bias. Findings are discussed in terms of specific mechanisms that may link cognitive factors, bilingualism, and racial bias.

先前的研究表明，双语儿童相对于他们的单语同龄人表现出较少的社会偏见。特别是，他们对种族外群体表现出较少的隐性偏见。然而，双语儿童种族偏见的认知决定因素仍不清楚。在当前的研究中，在双语学龄前儿童的样本中调查了种族偏见与三个认知因素（抑制控制、认知灵活性和观点采择能力）以及语言能力和父母教育之间的关系（N = 55）。孩子们是英语和普通话的双语学习者。结果表明，内隐偏见由认知灵活性预测，独立于抑制控制、第二语言词汇、观点采择和父母教育的变化。相比之下，显性偏见仅由父母教育预测，而不是由认知或语言因素预测。研究结果表明，认知灵活性的增加，通常被认为是双语经验的产物，也可能与内隐偏见的减少有关。研究结果根据可能将认知因素、双语和种族偏见联系起来的特定机制进行了讨论。