Research Children's faces may reveal hidden gender bias

[C C]

https://www.utoronto.ca/

PRESS RELEASE: New research recently published in Archives of Sexual Behavior suggests children's gender biases can be reflected in their facial emotional expressions.

Psychology professor Doug VanderLaan and his colleagues at the University of Toronto Mississauga, studied 296 children (148 boys and 148 girls) in Canada between the ages of four and nine years old while Wang Ivy Wong, Karen Kwan and their colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University studied 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 behaviours 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 behaviours don't follow gender stereotypes," said Doug VanderLaan, an associate professor with the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

"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.

[Syne]

Assuming the fear expression is a learned behavior would likely indicate it's not a universal response, but I don't see any percentage of occurrence. So either they just presumed it was learned, and didn't bother to see if their data supports that, or it's a more universal response, that didn't fit their narrative bias.

[Zinjanthropos]

Been refereeing basketball for over 40 years and I’ve seen plenty of girls who look like boys still behaving like girls. Same goes for boys who appear feminine at first glance. From what I see, the kids (players) don’t even bat an eye. No special treatment, no ridicule, no fear of said players. I’m probably the only guy on the court who expects behaviour to match my stereotypical view but that took years to accumulate. What purpose does this study have because it sure doesn’t sound like much to me?

[C C]

Been refereeing basketball for over 40 years and I’ve seen plenty of girls who look like boys still behaving like girls. Same goes for boys who appear feminine at first glance. From what I see, the kids (players) don’t even bat an eye. No special treatment, no ridicule, no fear of said players. I’m probably the only guy on the court who expects behaviour to match my stereotypical view but that took years to accumulate. What purpose does this study have because it sure doesn’t sound like much to me?

Not all scientific studies are useful, since the investigators ultimately have to make a living like everyone else.

It can be publish or perish that drives researchers to take on any potential project that already has funding allotted for its sector, and that could be accepted for publication by a journal just due to its "public service message" appeal of highlighting ills of society and possibly outputting something that might at least hand-wave as contributing to a political solution.

And supposedly "self-evident" territory is often addressed by studies, too. Since institutions, industries, governments, etc won't accept commonsense or everyday views about _X_. Those popular opinions must be formally vetted or discovered, along with any rival views contingently dismissed in the process.

Example: Is AI the new research scientist? Not so, according to a human-led study

[Zinjanthropos]

Been refereeing basketball for over 40 years and I’ve seen plenty of girls who look like boys still behaving like girls. Same goes for boys who appear feminine at first glance. From what I see, the kids (players) don’t even bat an eye. No special treatment, no ridicule, no fear of said players. I’m probably the only guy on the court who expects behaviour to match my stereotypical view but that took years to accumulate. What purpose does this study have because it sure doesn’t sound like much to me?

Not all scientific studies are useful, since the investigators ultimately have to make a living like everyone else.

It can be publish or perish that drives researchers to take on any potential project that already has funding allotted for its sector, and that could be accepted for publication by a journal just due to its "public service message" appeal of highlighting ills of society and possibly outputting something that might at least hand-wave as contributing to a political solution.

And supposedly "self-evident" territory is often addressed by studies, too. Since institutions, industries, governments, etc won't accept commonsense or everyday views about _X_. Those popular opinions must be formally vetted or discovered, along with any rival views contingently dismissed in the process.

Example: Is AI the new research scientist? Not so, according to a human-led study

Do studies nowadays include a back up.plan? If desired result not obtained then focus on something else an experiment might reveal or be a creative writer? I suppose saying you're working on a popular social issue might save funding.