The Development of Stereotyped Gender Attributions About Emotions in 2- and 3-year-olds: Knowledge Precedes Application The Development of Stereotyped Gender Attributions About Emotions in 2- and 3-year-olds: Knowledge Precedes Application INTRODUCTION Previous research has found that preschool-aged children’s descriptions of infants are influenced by gender stereotypes. In general, when an infant is displaying no affect, children say that boys are more potent or active than girls. Preschoolers also more readily attribute anger to males and sadness and fear to females. In order to make stereotypic attributions children must both have stereotype knowledge and choose to apply this knowledge. Stereotype knowledge is assessed using forced-choice tasks in which a child must assign one variable to a boy and the other to a girl (e.g., Who is strong and who is weak?). Forced-choice tasks measure knowledge because participants are given no information other than sex, forcing reliance on knowledge of gender stereotypes to answer the question. Stereotype application is assessed using non-forced tasks in which a child is asked to assign one of two or more variables to a specific boy or girl (e.g., “Do you think Rachel is strong or weak?”). Non-forced tasks measure application because participants can choose to apply or disregard the stereotype. QUESTIONS Do 2-year-olds have knowledge of gender stereotypes (forced)? Do 2-year-olds have knowledge of gender stereotypes (forced)? Do 2- and 3-year-olds apply gender stereotypes (non-forced)? Do 2- and 3-year-olds apply gender stereotypes (non-forced)? Do individual 2- or 3-year-olds apply gender stereotypes? Do individual 2- or 3-year-olds apply gender stereotypes? METHOD Experiment 1: 22 3-year-olds (13 boys) completed non-forced emotion labeling and bipolar adjective tasks. Experiment 2: 21 2-year-olds (7 boys) completed non-forced emotion labeling and bipolar adjective tasks and a forced bipolar adjective task. Application Measure: Emotion Labeling Introduced to emotions with schematic drawings Anger Fear Happy Sad Shown 4 10-second clips of a 12-month-old girl in neutral clothing: 3 clips displayed mixed negative affect (sadness/anger). 1 clip displayed neutral affect Children were either told the infant was, “a boy named Arthur” or “a girl named Rachel.” After the negative clips children were asked to label the emotion displayed by the infant verbally or by pointing to a drawing. Karen Singer-Freeman & Nayeli Calle Application Measure: Bipolar Adjectives After the neutral clip children were asked which of 12 bipolar adjectives from 3 categories best described the infant, “Do you think Rachel is…” Potency and Activity adjectives were used to calculate overall schematicity for individual children. Potency Activity Evaluation (no effects found) big or little fast or slowhappy or sad mad or scared loud or quietnice or mean strong or weak awake or sleepy smart or dumb hard or softfun to play with or not… good or bad Knowledge Measure: Bipolar Adjectives Children were shown photographs of 2 infants identified as, “a boy named Eric and a girl named Debbie” and were asked to assign the bipolar adjectives to these infants, “Who is ________ and who is ________.” RESULTS Emotion Labeling We found that 3-year-olds but not 2-year-olds applied stereotypes: 3- year-olds who believed the infant was male were more likely to label him as angry and marginally less likely to label him as afraid than 3- year-olds who believed the infant was female. Bipolar Adjectives 2-year-olds demonstrated stereotype knowledge but not application assigning potency and activity adjectives stereotypically in the forced (65%) but not in the non-forced task (51%). 3-year-olds demonstrated application responding stereotypically in the non-forced task (65%). Individual Differences Although 2-year-olds were not applying gender stereotypes as a group, we were interested in whether individual 2-year-olds who were more schematized might apply stereotypes. We calculated a measure of individual schematicity by averaging the total number of bipolar adjectives that were assigned stereotypically across the two tasks (for 2-year-olds) or in the Application Task (for 3-year-olds). Using these measures we found: 2-year-olds in the Rachel condition who were more schematized were more likely to label ambiguous emotions as sadness and marginally less likely to label them as anger than 2-year-olds who were less schematized. 3-year-olds in the Arthur condition who were more schematized were marginally more likely to label ambiguous emotions as anger than 3- year-olds who were less schematized.DISCUSSION 2-year-olds have knowledge of gender stereotypes but do not apply these stereotypes: Knowledge of stereotypes precedes application. 3-year-olds apply stereotypes to inferences about emotions and traits. Thus, it is likely that they also have knowledge of these stereotypes. Highly schematized 2-year-olds apply stereotypes about sadness and anger to girls more than less schematized 2-year-olds. Highly schematized 3-year-olds apply stereotypes about anger to boys more frequently than less schematized children. Overall, we saw fewer effects of schematization in 3-year-olds. This may be the result of the use of a weaker measure of schematization. Alternatively, it may reflect the fact that there is less individual variability in the use of stereotypes by 3-year-olds.