Girls are good at STEM: Opening minds and providing evidence reduces boys' stereotyping of girls' STEM ability.

Girls and women face persistent negative stereotyping within STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics). This field intervention was designed to improve boys' perceptions of girls' STEM ability. Boys (N = 667; mostly White and East Asian) aged 9-15 years in Canadian STEM summer camps (2017-2019) had an intervention or control conversation with trained camp staff. The intervention was a multi-stage persuasive appeal: a values affirmation, an illustration of girls' ability in STEM, a personalized anecdote, and reflection. Control participants discussed general camp experiences. Boys who received the intervention (vs. control) had more positive perceptions of girls' STEM ability, d = 0.23, an effect stronger among younger boys. These findings highlight the importance of engaging elementary-school-aged boys to make STEM climates more inclusive.

A Sorry Excuse for an Apology: Examining People's Mental Representations of an Apologetic Face.

The goal of the current research was to gain an understanding of people's mental representations of an apologetic face. In Study 1, participants' responses were used to generate visual templates of apologetic faces through reverse correlation (Study 1a, n = 121), and a new set of participants (Study 1b, n = 37 and 1c, n = 153) rated that image (group-level Classification Image, CI), as well as either the inverse image (group-level anti-CI in Study 1b) or base face (in Study 1c), on apology-related characteristics. Results demonstrated that people have a mental representation of an apologetic face, and that sadness is an important feature of this template. To examine similarities between mental representations of apologetic and sad faces, participants in Study 2 generated visual templates of sad faces using reverse correlation (Study 2a, n = 121). New participants (Study 2b, n = 162) were then randomly assigned to rate the averaged face, eyes, and mouths (group-level CIs) as well as the individual visual templates (individual-level CIs) generated from both studies for either how apologetic or sad they appeared. Visual templates of apologetic and sad faces were seen as apologetic, providing evidence of the prominence of sadness in mental representations of apology. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10919-022-00422-5.

Children's implicit attitudes toward targets who differ by race and gender.

In the current research we examined non-Black children's associations with targets who differed by both race and gender, with a focus on the role of categorization in informing children's biases. Children aged 5 to 12 years (N = 206; 109 boys, 97 girls; 55% White; 68% of household incomes > $75,000/year), recruited from a science museum in a large multicultural Canadian city, completed a child-friendly Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al., 2003) that included own-gender Black and other-gender White targets. Children were randomly assigned to complete this IAT under one of three categorization conditions. When asked to categorize targets by gender as opposed to race, both girls and boys showed relatively more positive associations with own-gender Black targets over other-gender White targets. Children in a third, Ambiguous-Categorization (AC-IAT; Lipman et al., 2021) condition, which allowed for categorization by gender and/or race, were more likely to spontaneously categorize additional final trials primarily by gender (70%), suggesting that gender was the more salient social category. However, girls' and boys' biases in this condition differed, with girls showing relatively more positive associations with own-gender Black targets (Black girls > White boys) and boys showing relatively more positive associations with other-gender White targets (White girls > Black boys). In addition, the more boys and girls categorized by gender (over race) at the end of the task, the more they showed positive associations with own-gender Black targets over other-gender White targets. These findings provide insight into children's social categorization processes and biases toward targets who differ by race and gender. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining adolescent daughters' and their parents' academic-gender stereotypes: Predicting academic attitudes, ability, and STEM intentions.

INTRODUCTION: Women continue to be underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and research suggests that academic-gender stereotypes can be a contributing factor. In the present research, we examined whether adolescent daughters' and their parents' gender stereotypes about math and liberal arts would predict the academic orientation of daughters at a critical time of career related decision-making. METHODS: Participants included girls in late adolescence (N = 185, Mage = 17) and at least one parent (N = 230, Mage = 49), resulting in 147 mother-daughter dyads and 83 father-daughter dyads. Implicit academic-gender stereotypes were measured using an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and explicit stereotypes, academic attitudes, academic ability, and daughters' intentions to pursue a degree in STEM were measured using self-reports. RESULTS: Neither mothers' nor fathers' implicit or explicit academic-gender stereotypes predicted adolescent daughters' implicit stereotypes; however, fathers' explicit stereotypes predicted daughters' explicit stereotypes. In addition, daughters' academic orientation, a latent variable composed of adolescent girls' academic attitudes, academic ability, and intentions to pursue a degree in STEM, was predicted by daughters' own implicit and explicit stereotypes. This was the case for relative orientation toward math versus liberal arts, as well as math (but not liberal arts) orientation. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest the importance of challenging academic-gender stereotypes during adolescence and suggest that at this stage in development, mothers' and fathers' academic stereotypes might have limited relation to daughters' own implicit associations with academic domains.

Children's spontaneous associations with targets who differ by race and emotional expression.

Across three studies, we examined non-Black children's spontaneous associations with targets who differed by both race and emotional expression. Children aged 5 to 10 years (N = 419; 215 girls; 58% White; 65% of household incomes >$75,000/year) completed Implicit Association Tests (IAT; Greenwald et al., 2003) containing smiling Black and neutral White target faces. In all three studies, when children categorized these faces by emotional expression, they showed relatively more positive associations with smiling Black targets over neutral White targets, as compared with when they categorized these faces by race. This was the case when children were shown how to categorize these faces (Studies 1 and 2) and when they spontaneously categorized by race or emotional expression on an Ambiguous-Categorization IAT that allowed for categorization by race and/or emotion (Studies 2 and 3). In Study 3, after watching an adult explain that she was categorizing racially diverse faces by emotional expression in a seemingly unrelated card-sorting task, children were also relatively faster to pair smiling Black faces with pleasant images and neutral White faces with unpleasant images on this Ambiguous-Categorization IAT compared with children in a control condition. Older children were more likely to spontaneously categorize primarily by race (Studies 2 and 3) but were also more likely to categorize by emotion following the intervention (Study 3) compared with younger children. Together, these studies provide insight into children's social categorization processes and spontaneous associations with targets who differ systematically across multiple perceptually salient categories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Developmental differences in the malleability of implicit racial bias following exposure to counterstereotypical exemplars.

Research suggests that exposure to stories about Black adults who are contributing positively to their community can reduce implicit pro-White/anti-Black racial bias in older children (ages 9-12). The aim of the current research was to replicate and extend this finding by investigating whether a different child-friendly manipulation exposing children to positive Black exemplars and negative White exemplars could decrease implicit pro-White/anti-Black racial bias in children aged 5 to 12 years, both immediately following the intervention and 1 hr later. In addition, a second aim of this research was to examine whether child-friendly positive exemplar exposure would similarly reduce adults' implicit racial bias. In a sample of White and Asian Canadians (N = 478; 182 male, 296 female), recruited from a community science center (children) and a public university in Vancouver (adults), 9- to 12-year-old children's racial bias was reduced up to 1 hr after this new intervention, while the effectiveness of the intervention on 5- to 8-year-old children's bias was less clear. Interestingly, this intervention did not reduce adult levels of bias. The results of a follow-up study (N = 96; 23 male, 72 female, 1 nonbinary) indicate that exposure to child exemplars can reduce bias in adults, but only when additional instructions are provided to internalize the presented association. Thus, the current study provides evidence that depicting counterstereotypical exemplars can reduce implicit racial bias in children for up to 1 hr after exemplar exposure, but there may be important developmental differences in the conditions required to change this bias. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

How robust is the own-group face recognition bias? Evidence from first- and second-generation East Asian Canadians.

There is mounting evidence that North Americans are better able to remember faces of targets who belong to the same social group, and this is true even when the social groups are experimentally created. Yet, how Western cultural contexts afford the development of this own group face recognition bias remains unknown. This question is particularly important given that recent findings suggest that first-generation East Asian Canadians do not show this bias. In the current research, we examined the own-group bias among first- and second-generation East Asian Canadians, who vary systematically in their exposure to and engagement in a Western cultural context, and tested mediators that could explain any difference. In Study 1, second-generation East Asian Canadians showed better memory for same-group (vs. other-group) faces. In Studies 2 and 3, as well as a meta-analysis of all three studies, we found some additional evidence that second-generation East Asian Canadians show better memory for same-group (vs. other-group) faces, whereas first-generation East Asian Canadians do not, but only when each cultural group was examined separately in each study, as no interaction with generational status emerged. In Study 2, and in a higher powered pre-registered Study 3, we also examined whether second- (vs. first-) generational status had a positive indirect effect on same-group face recognition through the effects of acculturation and perceived relational mobility in the immediate social environment, however this mediation model was not supported by the data. Overall, the results provide some additional evidence that the effect of mere social categorization on face recognition may not be as consistently found among East Asian participants.

Examining Children's Implicit Racial Attitudes Using Exemplar and Category-Based Measures.

The goal of this research was to examine children's implicit racial attitudes. Across three studies, a total of 359 White 5- to 12-year-olds completed child-friendly exemplar (Affective Priming Task; Affect Misattribution Procedure) and category-based (Implicit Association Test) implicit measures of racial attitudes. Younger children (5- to 8-year-olds) showed automatic ingroup positivity toward White child exemplars, whereas older children (9- to 12-year-olds) did not. Children also showed no evidence of automatic negativity toward Black exemplars, despite demonstrating consistent pro-White versus Black bias on the category-based measure. Together, the results suggest that (a) implicit ingroup and outgroup attitudes can follow distinct developmental trajectories, and (b) the spontaneous activation of implicit intergroup attitudes can depend on the salience of race.

A cross-cultural investigation of children's implicit attitudes toward White and Black racial outgroups.

Initial theory and research examining children's implicit racial attitudes suggest that an implicit preference favoring socially advantaged groups emerges early in childhood and remains stable across development (Dunham, Baron, & Banaji, 2008). In two studies, we examined the ubiquity of this theory by measuring non-Black minority and non-White majority children's implicit racial attitudes toward White and Black racial outgroups in two distinct cultural contexts. In Study 1, non-Black minority children in an urban North American community with a large Black population showed an implicit pro-White (versus Black) bias in early childhood. Contrary to previous findings, the magnitude of this bias was lower among older children. In Study 2, Malay (majority) and Chinese (minority) children and adults in the Southeast Asian country of Brunei, with limited contact with White or Black peers, showed an implicit pro-White (versus Black) bias in early childhood. However, the magnitude of bias was greater for adults. Together, these findings support initial theorizing about the early development of implicit intergroup cognition, but suggest that context may affect these biases across development to a greater extent than was previously thought. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgQP8e4MSCk&feature=youtu.be.

Reducing Children's Implicit Racial Bias Through Exposure to Positive Out-Group Exemplars.

Studies with adults suggest that implicit preferences favoring White versus Black individuals can be reduced through exposure to positive Black exemplars. However, it remains unclear whether developmental differences exist in the capacity for these biases to be changed. This study included 369 children and examined whether their implicit racial bias would be reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars. Results showed that children's implicit pro-White bias was reduced following exposure to positive Black exemplars, but only for older children (Mage  = ~10 years). Younger children's (Mage  = ~7 years) implicit bias was not affected by this intervention. These results suggest developmental differences in the malleability of implicit racial biases and point to possible age differences in intervention effectiveness.

The Reliability of Child-Friendly Race-Attitude Implicit Association Tests.

Implicit attitudes are evaluations that are made automatically, unconsciously, unintentionally, or without conscious and deliberative processing (Nosek et al., 2007; Gawronski and De Houwer, 2014). For the last two decades implicit measures have been developed and used to assess people's attitudes and social cognition, with the most widely used measure being the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Greenwald et al., 2003). This measure has been used extensively to assess racial biases and a number of studies have examined the reliability of the IAT when administered to adults (Cunningham et al., 2001; Gawronski, 2002; Greenwald et al., 2003; Nosek et al., 2005; Nosek and Smyth, 2007; Bar-Anan and Nosek, 2014). In recent years, the IAT has also been modified for use with children. Despite the potential of this measure to provide insight into the early emergence of implicit racial attitudes, little is known about the psychometric properties of these modified child-friendly IATs (Child-IATs). In the current research we examined the internal consistency of race-attitude Child-IATs when either reduced (Study 1) or traditional-length (Study 2) versions were administered to children (Studies 1 and 2) and adults (Study 2). We also examined the test-retest reliability of this measure with both child and adult participants (Study 2). We found that these measures demonstrate an internal consistency comparable to what has been seen in previous research with adults. In addition, the internal consistency of traditional-length Child-IATs completed in succession depended on the order in which they were completed; the first Child-IAT demonstrated higher internal consistency than the second for both children and adults (Study 2). Finally, we provide the first evidence that the test-retest reliability of the Child-IAT is comparable to what has been found previously with adults (Study 2). The implications of these findings for future research examining children's implicit social cognition are discussed.

Children's Racial Categorization in Context.

The ability to discriminate visually based on race emerges early in infancy: 3-month-olds can perceptually differentiate faces by race and 6-month-olds can perceptually categorize faces by race. Between ages 6 and 8 years, children can sort others into racial groups. But to what extent are these abilities influenced by context? In this article, we review studies on children's racial categorization and discuss how our conclusions are affected by how we ask the questions (i.e., our methods and stimuli), where we ask them (i.e., the diversity of the child's surrounding environment), and whom we ask (i.e., the diversity of the children we study). Taken together, we suggest that despite a developmental readiness to categorize others by race, the use of race as a psychologically salient basis for categorization is far from inevitable and is shaped largely by the experimental setting and the greater cultural context.

Culture moderates the relationship between interdependence and face recognition.

Recent theory suggests that face recognition accuracy is affected by people's motivations, with people being particularly motivated to remember ingroup versus outgroup faces. In the current research we suggest that those higher in interdependence should have a greater motivation to remember ingroup faces, but this should depend on how ingroups are defined. To examine this possibility, we used a joint individual difference and cultural approach to test (a) whether individual differences in interdependence would predict face recognition accuracy, and (b) whether this effect would be moderated by culture. In Study 1 European Canadians higher in interdependence demonstrated greater recognition for same-race (White), but not cross-race (East Asian) faces. In Study 2 we found that culture moderated this effect. Interdependence again predicted greater recognition for same-race (White), but not cross-race (East Asian) faces among European Canadians; however, interdependence predicted worse recognition for both same-race (East Asian) and cross-race (White) faces among first-generation East Asians. The results provide insight into the role of motivation in face perception as well as cultural differences in the conception of ingroups.

Do these norms make me look fat? The effect of exposure to others' body preferences on personal body ideals.

In this study we examined the influence of normative body ideals in the form of perceived peer preferences on personal body ideals and body dissatisfaction Participants (N=146 female college students) were exposed to the purported preferences of peers representing either relatively thin or heavy body ideals. Along with the normative body ideal manipulation, the gender of the purported peers was manipulated. Participants then selected their ideal for their own body and body dissatisfaction was measured. Women selected a thinner personal body ideal in the thin norm condition than in the heavy norm condition. This effect was seen irrespective of the gender of the purported peers. Body dissatisfaction was not influenced by the manipulation. The malleability of body image and the influence of social factors on ideal body size are discussed.

(Close) distance makes the heart grow fonder:Improving implicit racial attitudes and interracial interactions through approach behaviors.

In 4 studies, the authors examined the effect of approaching Blacks on implicit racial attitudes and immediacy behaviors. In Studies 1-3, participants were trained to pull a joystick toward themselves or to push it away from themselves when presented with photographs of Blacks, Whites, or Asians before completing an Implicit Association Test to measure racial bias. In Study 4, the effect of this training procedure on nonverbal behavior in an interracial contact situation was investigated. Results from the studies demonstrated that approaching Blacks decreased participants' implicit racial prejudice and increased immediacy when interacting with a Black confederate. The implications of these findings for current theories on approach, avoidance, and intergroup relations are discussed.