Reaction to race: Study uses video game to check children's attitudes

"Dora the Explorer" is a well-known children's figure. But does she present a positive Latino image?

Researchers recently tried to figure this out, using the "La Casa de Dora" video game and kindergarten through second-grade students from Jenkins Elementary School and some of the older children at the day care at Hickory High School.

Ximena Lopez and her husband, Carlo Fabricatore came to Catawba County from Italy to collaborate on the research with Lenoir-Rhyne University psychology professor and video game researcher Karen Dill.

"La Casa de Dora" is a computer video game based on the children's cartoon TV series of "Dora the Explorer." The show features a Latino child and teaches children basic Spanish words and phrases, as well as math skills, music and physical coordination.

"I wanted to see if the children would have positive images of Latinos with gender and race," said Lopez, the lead researcher who came from Roma Tre University.

Students played "La Casa de Dora" for 15 minutes, making an entree with the computer saying the English and Spanish words for the food.

Afterward, the students were given a short test on the computer, where images of Dora and her friends, Diego and DeDe, were shown briefly, as well as photos of real white and Latino children. After each image was shown, a Chinese character was shown. That served as a neutral image for the kids.

Each image was on the screen for about .75 milliseconds, so children didn't have much time to think about it, Lopez said. The children were given two options: Click on a smiley face or a frowny face to indicate whether they liked the picture that they saw or if they didn't.

Her husband, Fabricatore, wrote the computer program that measures the students' implicit attitude toward race.

"It's easier, because the images are flashing. It's better than asking them what you think about Latinos versus whites," Lopez said. "You tell the kids expressly not to focus on the cartoon or photo of the children, that the symbol is important."

Fabricatore said the test that studies the children's response to "La Casa de Dora" is designed to be fun for the students.

"We wanted it to look sort of like a game, because we didn't want the kids to feel too much of a difference from the real game," he said. "We didn't want them to feel that there was a right or wrong answer."

The students also play "Jewels," a game that has students match up items three in a row. After playing that game for 15 minutes, students took the same test.

"We wanted a game that didn't have any people in it," Lopez said, explaining that it was the control game for the study.

All the children also complete surveys, listing their age, ethnicity and other indicators, although their name was not attached to it. Children are also asked if they know whom Dora is, where she lives, if they liked they game and other questions relating to Dora the Explorer.

After collecting data with Dill, who also studies video game effects, Lopez is taking the information back to Italy, where she will analyze the results. She said she not sure what the results will be.

"I hope there's not racism in 5-year-olds," Lopez said. "I hope they're not biased, because that means that as a society, we're not giving them very good messages."

She also hopes there will be no differences between what the different ethnicity of children think.

"I hope, through 15 minutes of short, positive play, a Latino girl will make them feel more positive about Latinos," Lopez said.

Although Fabricatore was only involved on the program-end of the study, he said he's very interested to see the results of Lopez's study.

He said video games usually get a bad rap, but they can be good, too.

"People learn through games," he said. "Why not exploit our potential through games? Video games are excellent means to learn how to think."