Poster #193 - The Influence of Gender Stereotypes on Children’s Trust in Scientific Testimonies

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Recent research suggests that, throughout early childhood, children develop stereotypes associating being male with intellect and science (Bian, Leslie, & Cimpian, 2017; Miller, Nolla, Eagly, & Uttal, 2018). We investigated the effect of children’s gender-science stereotypes on their trust in scientific information presented by men and women. Specifically, we hypothesized that children would trust information presented by a man over information presented by a woman when both offered conflicting statements about science topics, irrespective of any baseline preferences children had for men and women.

In Study 1, 150 3- to 8-year-olds heard male and female characters identified as “man” and “woman” present pairs of opposing testimonies about toys and science, and indicated which testimony from each pair they thought was correct. We expected boys and girls to endorse testimonies from the male informant more often when learning about science than toys. A RMANOVA revealed a significant interaction between children’s gender and testimony subject that appears driven by girls’ endorsing the male informant’s testimony more frequently when learning about science than toys (Fig1). Unexpectedly, there was an interaction between children’s gender, testimony subject, and the gender of the experimenter conducting the study. Post-hoc tests revealed that when girls were tested by a male (relative to a female) experimenter, they endorsed the male informant’s testimony significantly more frequently when learning about science than toys. This raises the possibility that girls’ trust in scientific information is susceptible to stereotypes associating males with science.

Study 2 tested 264 3- to 8-year-olds using the same procedure as Study 1, except the male and female characters wore lab coats and were identified as “scientists.” We expected this change to make both characters seem credible, causing children to rely more on source characteristics thus trusting the man even more when learning about science. Contrary to our expectations, there was no main effect of testimony subject, only a trend-level interaction between children’s gender and testimony subject, and no significant interactions with experimenter gender. Learning from male and female scientists appeared to attenuate the effects of children’s gender-science stereotypes.

To probe the influence of informant characteristics and experimenter gender on girls’ trust in scientific testimonies, we restricted our analyses to girls’ responses across both studies. We found significant interactions between testimony subject and study, and between testimony subject and experimenter gender. These interactions indicate that girls endorsed the male informant’s science testimonies more when being tested by a male experimenter and when the characters were simply introduced as “man” and “woman” (Fig2). It is thus possible that when girls were exposed to a female scientist, either as study experimenter or task stimulus, their trust in scientific testimonies was less influenced by gender-science stereotypes.

Our studies demonstrate that stereotypes about men’s and women’s scientific aptitude could lead girls to place greater trust in men’s testimonies about science. Our studies also suggest that, in line with recent meta-analyses (Miller, Eagly, & Linn, 2015; Miller et al., 2017), representation of women in science roles can reduce children’s implicit endorsement of gender-science stereotypes.

Authors

• Gavin Nathaniel Rackoff, Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Daniel Lagoni, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Mia Shoshany, Washington University in St. Louis
  Presenting Author

• Nasreen Amal Moursi, Washington University in St. Louis
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Hennefield, Washington University in St Louis
  Non-Presenting Author