Measuring the neural correlates of the violation of social expectations: A comparison of two experimental tasks

Mothers’ and fathers’ neural responses toward gender-stereotype violations by their own children

“…sadness, anxiety; stereotype-violating) elicited larger N1 amplitudes than boys with externalizing problem behavior (e.g. aggression, anger; stereotype-confirming), but this difference was not found for girls ( Portengen et al ., 2022 ). This indicates that the violation of gender stereotypes might be viewed as more negative for boys than for girls and would therefore evoke stronger neural responses in parents.…”

“…Regarding the P1, angry female faces (gender-stereotype violations) were found to elicit higher P1 amplitudes than happy female faces (gender-stereotype confirmations) ( Liu et al ., 2017 ). The N1 has been found to be larger toward expectancy-violating trials than expectancy-confirming trials ( Dickter and Gyurovski, 2012 ; Portengen et al ., 2022 ). Results regarding the P2 have been less consistent, with studies finding larger, smaller, and no difference in P2 amplitudes toward the violation vs confirmation of social expectations ( Jerónimo et al ., 2017 ; Yang et al ., 2020 ; Portengen et al ., 2022 ).…”

“…Indeed, several studies have found indications that ERP amplitude differences were related to a person’s gender cognitions. For example, a larger P1 amplitude toward gender stereotype-violating than gender stereotype-confirming preschoolers was associated with stronger implicit gender stereotypes ( Portengen et al ., 2022 ). Moreover, mothers’ P3 activity elicited by gender-stereotype violations and confirmations was found to be related to their level of gender stereotypes ( Endendijk et al ., 2019b ).…”

“…Moreover, mothers’ P3 activity elicited by gender-stereotype violations and confirmations was found to be related to their level of gender stereotypes ( Endendijk et al ., 2019b ). Additionally, differences in LPP amplitudes elicited during stereotype-confirming and stereotype-violating trials have been found to be related to a person’s level of hostile sexism ( Canal et al ., 2015 ) and gender attitudes ( Portengen et al ., 2022 ). It is thus important to take parents’ gender cognitions into account when examining parents’ neural responses toward gender-stereotype violations.…”

“…In sum, there are indications that parents’ gender, children’s gender and parents’ gender cognitions play a role in parents’ neural processing of gender-stereotype violations by children. Moreover, differences in neural responses toward gender-stereotype violations vs confirmations in children have been found in the domains of toy preferences ( Endendijk et al ., 2019a , 2019b ) and problem behaviors ( Portengen et al ., 2022 ). However, thus far, most studies have focused on parents’ neural responses toward the violation and confirmation of gender-stereotyped expectations of unknown children instead of parents’ own sons and daughters.…”