Expertise in unexpected places: Children’s acceptance of information from gender counter-stereotypical experts

Abstract

The current study examined children's willingness to accept novel information from expert informants with nontraditional gender role interests. Four- to 8-year-olds heard conflicting information about traditionally feminine or masculine domains from a gender counter-stereotypical expert (e.g., a boy with expertise in ballet) and a layperson of the other gender (e.g., a girl with little knowledge about ballet). Participants were asked which informant was correct, who they would prefer to learn from in the future, and to rate their liking of each informant. Overall, participants selected the gender counter-stereotypical expert as correct. Four- to 5-year-olds reported a preference to learn from same-gender participants in the future irrespective of expertise, whereas 6- to 8-year-olds reported wanting to learn from counter-stereotypical experts. Boys showed relatively greater acceptance of information from a male counter-stereotypical expert than from a female counter-stereotypical expert. Although participants reported greater liking of same-gender informants, liking evaluations were largely positive irrespective of gender norm deviations. Implications for children's acceptance of gender nonconforming activities are discussed.

Gender stereotypes and biases in early childhood: A systematic review

“…In one further study, gender-stereotyped/neutral characters were presented in a computer game about occupations (Coyle & Liben, 2016). In six studies, children were presented with stories or vignettes (Conry-Murray & Turiel, 2012; Rizzo & Killen, 2018), information (Arthur et al, 2009; Baker et al, 2016; Boseovski et al, 2016), images (Pillow et al, 2015) or objects (Ma & Woolley, 2013). In two studies, the gender-neutrality or gender-typicality of the early childhood setting varied such that the exposure was a high/low gender salient classroom (Hilliard & Liben, 2010), or a gender-neutral/typical setting (Shutts et al, 2017).…”

“…Boseovski and colleagues presented pre-schoolers with conflicting testimony about traditionally male or female activities: one from a counter gender-stereotypical expert and one from a layperson who was gender stereotypical (Boseovski et al, 2016). Participants had to nominate who they thought was correct, who they would prefer to learn from in the future and to indicate how much they liked each informant.…”

When Peer Performance Matters: Effects of Expertise and Traits on Children's Self‐Evaluations After Social Comparison

“…Second, between early and middle childhood, both expertise and ability‐related traits are seen as increasingly relevant to performance outcomes. Although preschoolers use expertise to make decisions about the correctness of information, it is not until middle childhood that expertise guides children's selections of a task instructor (Boseovski, Hughes, & Miller, ). This suggests a developing awareness that experts should perform well on tasks that are relevant to the domain of expertise.…”

“…Thus, methodological assessments of expertise differ from those that assess perceptions of ability‐related traits. In many studies, expertise is denoted by referring to individuals' experience (e.g., “has taken many classes on sewing”; Boseovski et al., ). Assessments of expertise reasoning evaluate children's understanding of the amount of knowledge an individual has (e.g., “How much would he know when he is 30 years old?”; Lockhart et al., ), whereas assessments of ability‐related traits evaluate children's reasoning about the essence of an individual (i.e., “Could he change to become a smart person if he wanted to?”; Gelman et al., ).…”

Trusting Your Teacher: Implications for Policy

“…Yet, children do monitor for and selectively prefer to learn from an individual who is a member of their social group (Corriveau, Fusaro, et al, 2009; Elashi & Mills, 2014; Kinzler et al, 2011; McDonald & Ma, 2016). For example, they prefer to learn from an informant who shares their racial group (Chen, Corriveau, & Harris, 2013), gender (Boseovski, Hughes, & Miller, 2016), or accent (Corriveau, Kinzler, & Harris, 2013) and wins group consensus (Corriveau, Fusaro, et al, 2009).…”