∞ Gender Stereotypes About Intellectual Ability Emerge Early and Influence Children’s Interests
A report on Science by Lin Bian, Sarah-Jane Leslie, and Andrei Cimpian:
The distribution of women and men across academic disciplines seems to be affected by perceptions of intellectual brilliance. Bian et al. studied young children to assess when those differential perceptions emerge. At age 5, children seemed not to differentiate between boys and girls in expectations of “really, really smart”—childhood's version of adult brilliance. But by age 6, girls were prepared to lump more boys into the “really, really smart” category and to steer themselves away from games intended for the “really, really smart.”
Results of studies three and four.Boys’ (blue) and girls’ (red) interest (average of standardized responses to four questions) in novel games in study three (A) and study four (B). The main independent variable for each study (task in study three, age in study four) is shown in bold. Error bars represent ± 1 SE.
This is depressing to read.