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The Power of Perception: Children's Appearance as a Factor in Adults’ Predictions of Gender‐typical Behavior
Author(s) -
Rogers Cindy M.,
Ritter Jean M.
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 - 10.1111/1467-9507.00207
Subject(s) - psychology , femininity , masculinity , perception , developmental psychology , attractiveness , physical attractiveness , gender role , social psychology , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
Abstract We examined the influence of 3‐year‐olds’ facial characteristics on adults’ predictions of children's gender‐typical behaviors. Eighty‐nine adults viewed 12 photographs of children's faces differing in masculinity/femininity but matched for attractiveness. Half of the adults were told the sex of each child; half were not. Adults reported that masculine‐looking girls would be more likely to engage in masculine gender‐typical behavior and less likely to engage in feminine gender‐typical behavior compared with feminine‐looking girls. Adults also indicated that feminine‐looking boys would be more likely to engage in feminine gender‐typical behavior and less likely to engage in masculine gender‐typical behavior compared with masculine‐looking boys. When presented with both gender information and appearance cues, adults relied more heavily on the perceptual cue of appearance when predicting gender‐typical behaviors for both boys and girls.