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Children’s Gender–Emotion Stereotypes in the Relationship of Anger to Sadness and Fear

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Abstract

Children’s perceptions of the emotional reactions of same- and different-sex characters in stories containing ambiguous and unambiguous emotional contexts were examined. According to the Parallel-Constraint-Satisfaction Theory (Kunda and Thagard. Psychological Review, 103, 284–308, 1996), stereotypes are more likely to be utilized in ambiguous contexts, defined here as those likely to elicit multiple emotional responses. Seventy suburban U.S. preschoolers were read vignettes describing boys or girls in ambiguous or unambiguous emotion-inducing events and reported how the vignette characters were feeling. Results suggest that the perceptions of participants were more likely to reflect gender–emotion stereotypes (e.g. perceiving males as angry and females as sad) in ambiguous contexts than in unambiguous contexts. Results are discussed in terms of children’s emerging understanding of gender–emotion stereotypes.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Assumption College, Worcester, MA, 01609, USA

    Maria Parmley

  2. Department of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02454, USA

    Joseph G. Cunningham

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  1. Maria Parmley
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  2. Joseph G. Cunningham
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Correspondence to Maria Parmley or Joseph G. Cunningham.

Appendices

Appendix A: Vignettes

Anger

  • John/Mary is sitting down watching a video with the rest of the class. Another kid keeps talking during the video which makes it hard for John/Mary to hear.

  • John’s/Mary’s friend cut in front of the line to go outside. John/Mary started to yell at his/her friend.

Sad

  • John’s/Mary’s friend told him/her that they were moving away. Now John/Mary will not be able to play with his/her friend anymore.

  • John/Mary went to visit his/her Grandma who lived far away. At the end of the visit, John/Mary had to go home, and won’t see his/her Grandma for a long time.

Fear

  • A big mean dog is standing on a porch growling. While John/Mary is walking to school, he/she passes by and sees the dog.

  • John/Mary is watching TV. John/Mary watches the person on the TV show telling ghost stories.

Fear/Anger

  • John/Mary is walking home from school, and decides to go a new way home. John/Mary gets lost, and does not know the way home.

  • John/Mary is going to the doctor’s office because he/she has an appointment. John/Mary has to get three shots today.

Anger/Fear

  • John/Mary was playing catch with another kid, but the other kid wasn’t playing fair. The other kid just threw a ball at John/Mary and that could hurt him/her.

  • John/Mary saw another kid hitting his/her friend. John/Mary wanted to help, but the kid is pretty big and mean looking.

Anger/Sad

  • John/Mary kicked his/her friend because the friend was making fun of him/her. Now John/Mary is going to get in trouble from the teacher.

  • John/Mary asked his/her Mom if he/she could watch a TV show, but his/her Mom said no. Now John/Mary can’t watch TV.

Sad/Anger

  • John’s/Mary’s friend promised to share their cookie with John/Mary. The friend forgot about the promise, and ate the cookie all by themself.

  • John/Mary wants to go to McDonalds for dinner, and asks dad if they could go. John’s/Mary’s Dad says no because they didn’t have time to drive there.

Happy

  • John/Mary is really excited today. John/Mary is going to the Circus today to see animals and clowns.

  • It’s a hot day, and John/Mary asks Mom for an ice cream, and she says yes. John/Mary gets his/her favorite ice cream—vanilla.

Happy/Surprise

  • Today is John’s/Mary’s Birthday. When John/Mary got home from school, his/her mom gave him/her a cake and presents.

Appendix B: Sample Line Drawing for a Sad Story

Female Character

Male Character

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Parmley, M., Cunningham, J.G. Children’s Gender–Emotion Stereotypes in the Relationship of Anger to Sadness and Fear. Sex Roles 58, 358–370 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9335-9

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