Have LEGO Products Become More Violent?

Bartneck, Christoph; Ser, Qi Min; Moltchanova, Elena; Smithies, James; Erin, Harrington

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155401

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…For example, boys' toys generally include guns, bombs, swords, and military equipment that could all be used to "kill others." Interestingly, a recent study by Bartneck, Min Ser, Moltchanova, Smithies and Harrington (2016) showed that LEGo products have become more violent over time, supporting the claim that masculine toys may be more associated with aggression.…”

Section: Masculine Toys and Playmentioning

confidence: 66%

Characteristics of masculine and feminine toys and gender-differentiated play.

Cherney

2018

Gender Typing of Children's Toys: How Early Play Experiences Impact Development.

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Toys play a very important role in young children 's development (e.g., Leaper, 2015). They stimulate pretend play, and in many ways, interaction with toys is an important gateway to many aspects of children's social and cognitive development in early childhood (e.g., Hirsh-Pasek, Golinkoff, Berk, & Singer, 2008; see also Chapters 9 and 10, this volume). Toys, however, are highly gendered, particularly in the United States. It is thus important to understand how these toys are gendered, and how they influence children's development. In addition, toy manufacturers use different strategies to market toys to boys and to girls. Strolling down the toy aisles, children and parents can typically choose a toy among a "sea of blue and pink." Frequently, the same toy is available in "boy colors" or "girl colors." This chapter explores the research on the development of children's play, differentiated play patterns that emerge from playing with gendered toys, characteristics of gendered and neutral toys, and the skills children may develop from playing with certain

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Section: Masculine Toys and Playmentioning

confidence: 66%

Characteristics of masculine and feminine toys and gender-differentiated play.

Cherney

2018

Gender Typing of Children's Toys: How Early Play Experiences Impact Development.

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“…Our results confirm the less formal analysis of [ 17 ]. A more detailed analysis of the LEGO colors is available [ 18 ]. He concluded that the exact definition of the colors that TLG is using is unclear and the colors used in this article can only be considered an approximate symbolic representation of the real LEGO colors.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

LEGO products have become more complex

Bartneck

Moltchanova

2018

PLoS ONE

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The LEGO Group has become the largest toy company in the world and they can look back to a proud history of more than 50 years of producing bricks and other toys. Starting with a simple set of basic bricks their range of toys appeared to have increased in complexity over the years. We processed the inventories of most sets from 1955–2015 and our analysis showed that LEGO sets have become bigger, more colorful and more specialized. The vocabulary of bricks has increased significantly resulting in sets sharing fewer bricks. The increased complexity of LEGO sets and bricks enables skilled builders to design ever more amazing models but it may also overwhelm less skilled or younger builders.

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“…For example, even the company that makes nerf has made many of their soft toys into weapons, which was not the case when the company was founded (Brown et al, 2009). Bartneck, Min Ser, Moltchanova, Smithies, and harrington (2016) found an increase in the presence of weapons in LEGo sets from 1978 (when the first weapon brick was created) to 2014, when about 30% of LEGo sets had a weapon brick. Raters also perceived LEGo to be more violent across time.…”

Section: "War Toys" and Aggressionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Fashion or action? Gender-stereotyped toys and social behavior.

Murnen

2018

Gender Typing of Children's Toys: How Early Play Experiences Impact Development.

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Although the average American adult might not know these specific toys from the Toys "R" Us website (http://www.toysrus.com), they could probably guess that one of them is intended for girls and the other for boys. Contemporary toys are very gender stereotyped, even more so than was true in years past (Sweet, 2012). Feminine-stereotyped toys promote domesticity, nurturance, and a focus on appearance, and masculine stereotyped toys encourage riskiness, assertiveness, and a focus on action (Blakemore & Centers, 2005; see also Chapter 4, this volume). Most children play with toys that are stereotyped for their gender, so it is important to understand how stereotyped toys affect children's social development. In this chapter, I review research on the characteristics of gender-stereotyped toys that might influence children's social development. I propose that gendered toys help train children for gendered social roles. It is still the case that women are more associated with caretaking roles in the home and men are more associated with risk-taking

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Have LEGO Products Become More Violent?

Cited by 8 publications

References 28 publications

Characteristics of masculine and feminine toys and gender-differentiated play.

Characteristics of masculine and feminine toys and gender-differentiated play.

LEGO products have become more complex

Fashion or action? Gender-stereotyped toys and social behavior.

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