The Development and Consequences of Children’s Stereotypes about Effort

• In Event: Novel Insights on the Development of Social Group Stereotypes and how to Change Them

Abstract

Imagine Ron and Leslie, a man and a woman, respectively, who are tenured mathematics professors. Past research suggests we hold different assumptions about how Ron and Leslie came into their successes: Whereas men’s success—particularly in STEM—is often ascribed to high levels of talent, women’s success tends to be attributed to effort (Siegle et al., 2010; Swim & Sanna, 1996). Effort is often viewed as compensating for lack of talent; thus, even if we believed that both Ron and Leslie worked hard, we may assume that effort was required for Leslie’s—but not necessarily Ron’s—success. Parents and teachers also ascribe boys’ and girls’ math successes to talent and effort, respectively (Espinoza et al., 2014), and children incorporate these attributions into their self-concepts. Indeed, these gender-based stereotypes about effort lower women’s motivation to pursue STEM opportunities (Smith et al., 2013)—and they shape girls’ beliefs about the amount of effort they would have to put in to succeed in math (Pinxten et al., 2014).

Given the consequential nature of these stereotypes, we investigated their developmental trajectory: Do children endorse beliefs that girls put in—and have to put in—more effort than boys to succeed in math? We also tested whether children who endorse these beliefs show lower math interest and self-efficacy. Understanding when these stereotypes develop—and how they relate to motivation—could provide the foundation for increasing student engagement and self-efficacy in school.

We asked 141 children in the U.S. (M_AGE =8.4, Range_AGE =5-12; 78 girls, 63 boys) two sets of questions—one about their effort beliefs and another about their math and reading motivation (i.e., self-efficacy and interest in each subject; see Table 1 for all items). Effort questions were divided into two between-person conditions. Children in the “observed effort” condition reported whether they thought boys or girls do put a lot of effort into math and reading. Children in the “required effort” condition reported whether they thought boys or girls have to put in a lot of effort to do well in math and reading. All children also reported their self-efficacy and interest in math and reading.

Girls (but not boys; ps≥.211) reported that girls do work harder and have to work harder to do well in math compared to boys (ps≤.012; Figure 1, Panel A). Children did not hold these beliefs about reading (ps≥.247), though girls reported that girls work harder at reading than boys (“observed effort;” p<.001; Figure 1, Panel B). We also found preliminary evidence that associating effort with one’s group is negatively related to self-efficacy: This negative association was stronger in older (vs. younger) children (b=-0.10, p=.038) and was significant in children older than 11.7 years.

In sum, it may not be just adults who assume that Leslie, the successful mathematics professor mentioned previously, had to work harder than Ron to succeed. The current study suggests that children may already be developing these pervasive gender-based stereotypes, which in turn impair their motivation to pursue certain fields.

Authors

• Bethany Lassetter, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Natalie Ann Hutchins, New York University

• Vivian Liu, New York University

• Natalie Toomajian, New York University

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University