86 Chapter 3more knowledgeable about stereotypes than
same-age boys (O’Brien et al., 2000).
Second, by ages 5–6, children consoli-
date the information that they have acquired
and apply it rigidly to sex. Young children are
more likely than adults to rely on target sex
than individuating information when making
a judgment about a person. That is, children
learn that girls play with dolls and girls play
with cooking sets, but girls do not yet under-
stand that if someone plays with dolls, the
person might also enjoy cooking sets. Mar-
tin and Ruble (2009) refer to these as vertical
rather than horizontal associations stemming
from biological sex. That is, children rely
more on category-based expectancies than
target-based expectancies in comparison with
adults. Attention to individuating informa-
tion appears to increase with age.
Third, by ages 7–8, children utilize the
individuating information rather than sex
alone. This may make it seem that increased
age leads to a decrease in the use of gender-
role stereotypes. However, the use of indi-
viduating information can also be viewed
as utilizing gender-role stereotypes. That is,
older children will infer that Karen would
like to climb trees rather than play with dolls
because they see that Karen dresses in jeans
and a t-shirt. That is, older children may
be less likely to rely on target sex to infer
behavior, but they use their knowledge of
gender-role stereotypes to generalize from
one aspect of gender-role behavior to an-
other. Older students take into consider-
ation the individuating information but
that individuating information comes from
gender-role stereotypes. Beliefs about gender
roles—masculinity and femininity—may be
more rigid than beliefs about sex.
When the nature of children’s gender
stereotypes were examined among elemen-
tary school children, descriptors of boys andDeGeneres from the showEllenand the two
gay men onWill & Grace.Many television
shows today have gay characters but they
typically play a minor role. Consider Oscar
onOfficeor the Rachael’s two gay dads who
are never shown onGlee.
The increased exposure to homosexu-
als on television has the potential to reduce
negative stereotypes. In one study, college
students were asked to recall a positive gay
character from television or movies, a nega-
tive gay character, or did not recall a charac-
ter (control condition) and then completed
a homosexual attitudes scale (Bonds-Raacke
et al., 2007). The recalled image affected
students’ attitudes, such that attitudes were
more positive if they recalled a positive gay
character compared to a negative gay charac-
ter or no character. There was no difference
in people’s attitudes between the negative
gay character and control conditions, sug-
gesting that people’s attitudes toward homo-
sexuals are negative from the start. However,
the results of this kind of study suggest that
positive images of homosexuals have the
potential to alter people’s attitudes.Children’s Stereotypes
There appear to be three phases of stereo-
type development in children (Trautner
et al., 2005). First, prior to age 5, children
acquire information about gender-related
characteristics. There is some evidence
that by 18 months of age, children show
a greater preference for gender-stereo-
typed toys (Serbin et al., 2001). By 18 to 24
months, girls are able to link masculine toys
and activities with males and feminine toys
and activities with females, whereas boys
do not make these associations until 31
months of age (Poulin-Dubois et al., 2002;
Serbin et al., 2001). Three-year-old girls areM03_HELG0185_04_SE_C03.indd 86 6/21/11 12:22 PM