Premium
Is there a Gender Difference in False Belief Development?
Author(s) -
Charman Tony,
Ruffman Ted,
Clements Wendy
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9507.00183
Subject(s) - false belief , psychology , theory of mind , developmental psychology , post hoc , task (project management) , cognitive development , cognitive psychology , social psychology , cognition , medicine , management , dentistry , neuroscience , economics
The contribution of children's social environment to their acquisition of theory of mind skills, combined with the well documented advantage for girls in mental state talk with siblings, peers and mothers, might lead to a female advantage on false belief tasks. We present a post‐hoc analysis of large datasets from two independent laboratories. A slight advantage for girls on false belief task performance was found in both datasets and was only apparent in younger but not older children. Language ability could be controlled for only in a smaller subsample of one dataset and cannot be ruled out as a potential mediator of this effect. However, if there is an age‐specific advantage for girls in false belief acquisition it is a weak effect only.