Hardworking but Not Necessarily Smart: Early-Emerging Stereotypes of Children From Poor Families

• In Event: Social Class in Education: Children’s Beliefs About who is Smart, Hardworking, and Praiseworthy

Abstract

Social-class achievement gaps are a defining challenge of our time (United Nations, 2020). What stereotypes do children and adults hold about children from poor families in the achievement domain? Addressing this question may uncover societal ideas that perpetuate achievement gaps (Mijs, 2016). We hypothesized that children and adults would hold a stereotype of children from poor families being hardworking but not necessarily intelligent. Consequently, they may rate poor children as more hardworking than intelligent, attribute poor children’s successes to effort rather than ability (“They are hardworking”), and attribute poor children’s failures to a lack of ability rather than effort (“They are not smart enough”). We tested these hypotheses in 252 children (ages 8-13, 93% Dutch origin) and their parents (ages 29-59, 92% Dutch origin). Independently, children and parents saw four vignettes describing a child from a rich or poor family who succeeded or failed in school. They rated the child’s traits (e.g., intelligent, hardworking) and attributions of the child’s success or failure (e.g., “because he is [not] intelligent/hardworking”). Children held the hypothesized stereotype. They perceived children from poor families as more hardworking than intelligent, t(250) = -12.88, p < .001, while they perceived children from rich families as more intelligent than hardworking, t(250) = 8.33, p < .001. They attributed poor children’s successes more to hard work than to intelligence, t(250) = -7.09, p < .001, and they attributed poor children’s failures more to a lack of intelligence than to a lack of hard work, t(250) = 6.86, p < .001. There were no such effects on attributions of rich children’s successes and failures, ps > .129. Parents held a similar stereotype. They perceived children from poor families as more hardworking than intelligent, t(249) = -7.15, p < .001, while they perceived children from rich families as more intelligent than hardworking, t(249) = 8.14, p < .001. They attributed poor children’s successes roughly equally to hard work and intelligence, t(249) = -0.49, p = .622, while they attributed rich children’s successes more to intelligence than to hard work, t(249) = 7.15, p < .001. They attributed poor children’s failures more to a lack of intelligence than to a lack of hard work, t(249) = 4.60, p < .001, while they attributed rich children’s failures more to a lack of hard work than to a lack of intelligence, t(249) = -2.67, p = .008. Many of these tendencies were shared between parents and children, suggesting that they are transmitted intergenerationally. For example, the more parents perceived children from poor (versus rich) families as hardworking (versus smart), the more their children did, r(248) = .150, p = .017. These results reveal an early-emerging stereotype portraying children from poor families as hardworking but not necessarily intelligent. Even when these children do succeed in school, their successes are attributed primarily to hard work. This may perpetuate the harmful idea that children from poor families lack intellectual talent and that working hard is the best means for them to climb the social ladder.

Authors

• Eddie Brummelman, Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA)
  Presenting Author

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University