Transformative Tales: How Children’s Books Can Affect Children’s Understanding of Trans Identities and Gender Essentialist Beliefs

• In Event: 2-081 - New Directions in Social Essentialism Research

Integrative Statement

Exposure to people who are gender nonconforming (GNC) may prompt children to rethink gender (Olson & Enright, 2018). In our prior research, adults who experienced positive contact with GNC people (either in their own lives [N=202] or via experimentally induced imagined contact [N=295]) were less gender essentialist than those who did not. One way children can gain this exposure is through stories. The current research explores whether positive contact through stories can influence how young children think about trans identities and gender in general. Stories are often a way we try to explain morals and ideas to children (Walker & Lombrozo, 2017). However, we know children often need help interpreting these stories. Furthermore, young children are more gender essentialist making it possible that these stories may help children understand trans identities but will not influence their essentialist beliefs (Taylor, 1996). To explore how exposure to stories of characters with trans identities influences children’s understanding of these identities and their gender essentialist beliefs, we conducted two studies.
Study 1 was conducted to develop a scale to evaluate a child’s gender essentialist beliefs, assessing four components from the adult literature (biological basis, discreteness, informativeness, and immutability) (Bastian & Haslam, 2006; Levy, Stroessner, & Dweck, 1998). Forty-five children (ages 5-12) rated agreement with 42 items, on a 4-point scale. We retained 16 items that loaded well (4 per factor).
Study 2 (in progress) assesses 5 and 6-year-olds’ understanding of trans identities and gender essentialism by providing two stories, each modeled on a commercially-available book designed to promote awareness and empathy for GNC children. One directly introduces a transgender protagonist (“I am Jazz;” Herthel & Jennings, 2014); the other introduces trans-identities abstractly, by means of a marker that looks red but inside is really blue (based on “Red: A Crayon’s Story”; Hall, 2015). Each was converted to a 3-minute video animation of the book, to ensure participants receive the same presentation. In both videos the main character socially transitions and explains how they feel different on the inside than the body they have. Participants either watch one of the videos and complete the essentialism measures or only complete the novel essentialism measure. Participants’ understanding of the story is scaffolded with 3 questions based on questions used by Walker and Lombrozo (2017). After, participants are asked if a child can have the body of one gender but be another gender on the inside. Finally, participants complete the essentialism scale from Study 1, as well as Taylor’s (1996) Island Task (measuring the innateness component). Our preliminary data of 28 participants show that 60% of children in the Jazz condition report a child can be transgender, while in the Marker condition 33.3% of children report the same. We find essentialism is lower in the Jazz condition than the marker condition and control condition [Jazz M=2.66(.56); Marker M=3.09(.32); Control M=2.94(.51)]. So, while children may learn about trans identities from stories, they may need to be direct to allow children to reap the same benefits from contact as adults.

Authors

• Rachel D Fine, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Susan Gelman, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author