Children's faces may reveal hidden gender bias

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.