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The development of spontaneous gender stereotyping in childhood: relations to stereotype knowledge and stereotype flexibility
Author(s) -
Banse Rainer,
Gawronski Bertram,
Rebetez Christine,
Gutt Hélène,
Bruce Morton J.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
developmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.801
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1467-7687
pISSN - 1363-755X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00880.x
Subject(s) - psychology , stereotype (uml) , flexibility (engineering) , social psychology , developmental psychology , stereotype threat , mathematics , statistics
The development of spontaneous gender stereotyping in children was investigated using the newly developed Action Interference Paradigm (AIP). This task consists of assigning gender‐stereotypical toys as quickly as possible to boys and girls in either a stereotype‐congruent or a stereotype‐incongruent manner. A pilot study with 38 children (mean age 5.1 years) provided evidence for spontaneous gender stereotyping in the AIP, which was reflected in higher latencies for stereotype‐incongruent compared with stereotype‐congruent toy assignments. The main study, with 66 children (aged 5, 8 and 11 years), compared the development of spontaneous stereotyping with established measures of stereotype flexibility and stereotype knowledge. Stereotype flexibility showed a strong increase from age 5 to 11. In contrast, stereotype knowledge and spontaneous stereotyping remained stable at high levels. The results provide evidence for a dissociation between stereotype flexibility and spontaneous stereotyping, suggesting that spontaneous stereotyping may be more closely related to stereotype knowledge than to stereotype flexibility.