How race and gender shape the development of social prototypes in the United States

Abstract

The present studies examined how gender and race information shape children's prototypes of various social categories. Children (N = 543; M_age = 5.81, range = 2.75-10.62; 281 girls, 262 boys; 193 White, 114 Asian, 71 Black, 50 Hispanic, 39 Multiracial, 7 Middle-Eastern, 69 race unreported) most often chose White people as prototypical of boys and men-a pattern that increased with age. For female gender categories, children most often selected a White girl as prototypical of girls, but an Asian woman as prototypical of women. For superordinate social categories (person and kid), children chose members of their own gender as most representative. Overall, the findings reveal how cultural ideologies and children's own group memberships interact to shape the development of social prototypes across childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1.

Children’s predicted probability of picking a person of each race as the best representation of men as a function of participant age. Error bands represent 95% CIs. There were three faces shown per trial; the dotted horizontal line represents chance responding.

Figures 2

A (left) and B (right). Children’s predicted probability of picking a particular face as the best representation for the people category as a function of participant gender x stimulus gender (Figure 2A) or participant gender, stimulus gender, and participant race (Figure 2B). Error bars represent 95% CIs. There were six faces presented on each trial; the dotted horizontal line represents chance responding for each face. When a stimulus was female, for example, this increased the probability that girls would choose it to represent people and decreased the probability that boys would do so.

Figure 3.

Children’s predicted probability of picking a particular face as the best representation for the people category as a function of stimulus gender and participant age. Panels are separated by participant gender. Error bars represent 95% CIs. There were six faces presented on each trial. As shown, boys were more likely to select a stimulus if it was male, in a consistent manner across age. Girls were similarly more likely to select a stimulus if it was female, but this tendency declined across age.

Figure 4.

Children’s predicted probability of picking a particular face as the best representation for the people category as a function of stimulus gender and stimulus race. Error bars represent 95% CIs. There were six faces shown per trial; the dotted horizontal line represents chance responding. As shown, when an Asian face was female, this increased the probability that children would choose it to represent a person relative to an Asian male face.

Figures 5

A & B. Children’s predicted probability of picking a particular face for male-gendered categories as a function of stimulus race and participant age for men (left panel; 5A) and boy (right panel; 5B) trials. Error bands represent 95% CIs. There were three faces shown per trial; the dotted horizontal line represents chance responding. As shown, when a male face was White, this increased the probability that children would choose it to represent men or boys relative to when a male face was Black or Asian.

Figures 6

A (left) and B (right). Predicted probability that children will choose a particular face as a function of stimulus race for women (left) and girl (right) trials. For women, children were most likely to select an Asian woman, relative to a Black woman (b = −0.47, SE = .16, z = −2.97, p = .003) and marginally more so relative to a White woman (b = −0.28, SE = .16, z = −1.78, p = .075), with no difference between the latter two (p = .23). For girls, children were more likely to select a White girl than either a Black girl (b = −0.50, SE = .16, z = −3.23, p = .001) or an Asian girl (b = −0.62, SE = .16, z = −3.95, p < .001), with no difference between the latter two (p = .46). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. The horizontal dotted line represents responding at chance.

Figure 7.

Children’s predicted probability of picking a particular face as the best representation for superordinate categories as a function of stimulus gender, stimulus race, and participant gender (panels). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. There were six faces presented on any given trial. Boys’ own-gender bias in picking a prototypical person or kid was heightened for the White male stimulus relative to a Black or Asian male stimulus; in contrast, girls’ own-gender bias was not significantly moderated by stimulus race.

Figure 8.

Children’s predicted probability of picking a particular face as the best representation for the kid (left) and person (right) categories as a function of stimulus gender and stimulus race. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. There were six faces presented on each trial. When considering a prototypical person, children were more likely to select an Asian female face, relative to all other faces; however, the same was not true when considering the prototypical kid.

Figure 9.

Top four predicted strategy across all six trials of the prototype task as a function of participant age. Bar heights reflect density. Like-me (race and gender) preference indicates children who selected stimuli that matched their own race and gender (when applicable). Like-me (gender priority) preference indicates children who selected stimuli that matched their own gender in the people and kid trials but their own race in trials where gender was constrained. Gender-ingroup and race-ingroup preferences indicate children who selected based on their gender or race, respectively, regardless of the other dimension. For gender-ingroup, this means on the gendered trials, children generally had no specific racial preference.

Figure 10.

Predicted probability that children would use a gendered (e.g., “mommy”) or superordinate (e.g., “grownup”) label as a function of stimulus gender. Panels are separated by stimulus age-group. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. The horizontal dotted line represents equal likelihood of production.

Figure 11.

Predicted probability that children would choose a particular face as a function of participant age and use of gendered labels for describing pictures of adults. Error bands represent 95% confidence intervals. The horizontal dotted line represents chance responding.