British Journal of Developmental Psychology (2014) © 2014 The British Psychological Society www.wileyonlinelibrary.com Children’s racial bias in perceptions of others ’ pain

Previous research indicates that American adults, both Black and White, assume a priori that Black people feel less pain than do White people (Trawalter, Hoffman, & Waytz, 2012, PLoS One, 7[11], 1–8). The present work investigates when in development this bias emerges. Five-, 7-, and 10-year-olds first rated the amount of pain they themselves would feel in 10 situations such as biting their tongue or hitting their head. They then rated the amount of pain they believed twoother children – a Black child and aWhite child,matched to the child’s gender –would feel in response to the same events.We found that by age 7, children show a weak racial bias and that by age 10, they show a strong and reliable racial bias. Consistent with research on adults, this bias was not moderated by race-related attitudes or interracial contact. This finding is important because knowing the age of emergence can inform the timing of interventions to prevent this bias. There are widespread disparities in health and health care, both within and between countries. Social groups holding privileged status (e.g., those of high socioeconomic status; Caucasians) have greater access to health care and, as such, are healthier and live longer than their less privileged counterparts (e.g., those of low socioeconomic status; ethnic minorities; Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2011; Hertzman, 1999; Marmot & Wilkinson, 2005). For example, in a review of health inequalities across 22 European countries, including the United Kingdom, mortality rates were consistently higher for those of lower socioeconomic backgrounds relative to those of higher socioeconomic backgrounds (Mackenbach et al., 2008). In the United States, health disparities are particularly striking between Blacks and White