INTRODUCTION Research has established that gender stereotypes influence judgments of anger and fear by both adults and children. Currently, there are no studies in which both adults and children are compared on similar tasks. In the current study we examined whether preschoolers and adults would be influenced by gender stereotypes when labeling and rating the intensity of emotions. METHODS Participants 83 adults (38 female) and 24 preschoolers (10 female) Materials 12 schematic drawings of faces expressing anger, fear and sadness were modified so that each expression was drawn into 2 faces with either a male or a female hairstyle. Emotion-Labeling Task: Participants were asked to label each expression once as it appeared in either a male or female face. Intensity-Rating Task Participants were shown the male and female version of each expression side by side and asked to select the picture that displayed the stronger version of the emotion. Gender Stereotypes Influence Emotion Attributions in Preschoolers and Adults Karen Singer-Freeman & Marilia Dos Santos RESULTS Fear Children had more difficulty labeling fear in male pictures than in female pictures. Both 4-year-old females and adults selected female faces as displaying fear more intensely than male faces. Sadness Unexpectedly, 3-year-olds had more difficulty labeling sadness in female pictures than in male pictures. Adult and 4-year-old females selected female faces as displaying sadness more intensely than male faces. Anger All participants were equally able to identify anger in male and female faces. As a group participants selected female faces as displaying anger more intensely than male faces. However, 3-year-old males selected male faces as displaying anger more intensely than female faces. Identity Task Overall, boys described themselves more stereotypically than girls. Individual girls’ endorsement of potency adjectives predicted their response to the intensity task. Girls who described themselves as less potent believed that female faces displayed sadness and fear more intensely than male faces. DISCUSSION Both children and adults were influenced by stereotypes. Among children, girls responded more stereotypically than boys to the emotion tasks but were less likely to apply stereotypes to themselves. Individual girls who had more stereotypical views of themselves also applied stereotypes more consistently when interpreting emotions. Adults’ and children’s responses to anger seemed to reflect the belief that displays of anger will be masked by females. This caused them to view the same expression as more intense when it appeared in a female face. However, 3-year-old boys do not yet appear to be aware of this expectation. Identity Task (Children Only) Children were asked “Do you think you are mostly….” for each of 8 bipolar adjective pairs. Potency Activity Big or LittleFast or Slow Mad or Afraid Awake or Sleepy Strong or Weak Loud or Quiet Hard or Soft Angry or Sad