Children’s gender biases are apparent. And they display more scared emotion when viewing a boy who wasn’t following societal gender stereotypes in the types of toys, activities, clothes, hairstyles, and friends he preferred.
“Children’s Facial Emotional Expressions to Gender-Nonconforming Hypothetical Peers” by Karen Man Wa Kwan, Simran Isani, Haley J. James, Doug VanderLaan, et al appeared in the Archives of Sexual Behavior.
The researchers studied 296 children (148 boys and 148 girls) in Canada between the ages of four and nine years old, and 309 children (155 boys and 154 girls) in Hong Kong. All children watched four short stories that included five illustrations with pre-recorded audio narratives. The stories were presented in random order and showed peers who were in the same grade as the participant and displayed behaviors that either did or did not follow gender stereotypes. While viewing the stories, FaceReader software was used to code the intensities of participants’ emotions, including angry, disgusted, happy, sad, scared, and surprised.
The study found a small effect for one emotional expression (fear), but little to no difference in emotion with the other five. Participants displayed more scared emotion when viewing a boy who wasn’t following societal gender stereotypes in the types of toys, activities, clothes, hairstyles, and friends he preferred.
This fear was correlated with one of five verbal questions, in particular a question related to emotion perception, where children shared that they perceived the feminine-behaving boy as being less happy when compared with the boy who conformed with masculine gender stereotypes.
“These results provide evidence that children’s gender biases are reflected in their facial emotional expressions – specifically showing signs of being scared when it comes to boy peers whose behaviors don’t follow gender stereotypes,” said VanderLaan. “Developmentally, children may learn to imitate such fear responses from those who are around them like their peers, family members, and media.”
VanderLaan noted the finding is consistent with other studies highlighting that less positive characteristics are assigned to children whose behaviours don’t follow gender stereotypes, especially when it comes to feminine-behaving boys.
However, for this study in particular, examining facial emotional expressions provided unique insights into the emotional component of peer appraisals.
Overall, the research contributes toward more complete understanding when it comes to children’s gender biases while assessing their peers.
