The first goal of this study was to investigate the extent to which sex stereotypes impose competence (e.g., not knowing about objects) versus performance limitations (e.g., not performing for lack of reward). The second goal was to investigate the effects of sex stereotypes on exploration. Fifty-six 4to 9-year old children tactually explored novel objects labeled for their own sex more than similar objects labeled for the other sex and 1 week later also remembered more detailed information about own-sex than other-sex objects. Furthermore, regardless of labeling condition, children recalled the sex-typed label applied by the experimenter to each object. Also, as expected from Martin and Halverson's schematic processing model, an incentive to remember did not improve recall in any labeling condition. Finally, the sex-typed labeling effects on exploration occurred primarily among the older children, whereas the effects on recall appeared among the younger and older boys and the younger girls. The results suggest that sex stereotypes restrict children's behavior by limiting their competence rather than their performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.