Gender Intensification and Gender Generalization Biases in Pre-adolescents, Adolescents, and Emerging Adults.

The gender intensification hypothesis claims that the socialization pressures of early adolescence lead to the adoption of traditional sex-typed roles. We tested this proposal by examining how extensively children (Mage  = 9.39 years; N = 69, 31 female), early adolescents (Mage  = 12.06 years; N = 70, 36 female), middle adolescents (Mage  = 14.81 years; N = 65, 37 female), and emerging adults (Mage  = 18.51 years; N = 70, 37 female) made generalizations from vignettes about male and female characters who had stereotypically feminine or masculine qualities and who had stereotypically neutral qualities. Results showed, first, age-related increases in gender-based generalization biases (the difference between stereotype-consistent and stereotype-neutral generalizations) to mid-adolescence and an age-related decrease in generalization biases from mid-adolescence to adulthood. Second, we found gender intensification in self-conceptualizations as masculine and feminine: More so than children and emerging adults, middle adolescents adopted stereotypically masculine and feminine traits. Third, age-related declines in gender stereotypes of occupations and traits were mediated by faith in intuition. Finally, faith in intuition and gender self-concepts moderated age-related increases in generalization biases such that the slope of the age-related increase in biases was steepest for participants who placed the most faith in intuition and whose gender self-concepts were traditional. Findings are discussed in terms of gender identification, dual-process theories of judgements, and the interference stereotypes create when adolescents construct problem representations. Statement of contribution What is already known of the adolescent appearance culture Appearance plays an important role in the psychosocial lives of adolescents. Little research has been conducted on cultural differences in the adolescent appearance culture. What this study adds to our understanding of the adolescent appearance culture Americans were more appearance focused than Chinese adolescents; girls were more appearance focused than boys. The appearance focus-country link was mediated by body esteem, activity level, and parental body size. The link between appearance focus and gender was mediated by body consciousness and perceived appearance pressure.

Age, numeracy, and cultural differences in Chinese and American adolescents' performance on the ratio bias task.

Ratio bias occurs when low-probability events with large numerators are judged as more probable than identical or higher-probability ratios with small numerators. Chinese and American adolescents made judgments on ratio bias problems with identical winning probabilities and unequal winning probabilities and completed a test of numeracy. In general, older participants performed better than younger participants and Chinese participants performed subtly better than American participants. On both problem types, numeracy mediated the relationships between age and performance. Between-country differences on unequal ratio problems were moderated by numeracy, such that Chinese participants outperformed American adolescents only at the most numerate level. By contrast, numeracy neither mediated nor moderated the country-performance relationship on equal ratio problems; instead, Chinese adolescents outperformed American adolescents at each level of numeracy, although these differences were fairly small. Discussion focuses on transferring formal math skills to everyday judgments, the associations among age, culture, and numeracy from a dual-process perspective, and limitations and alternative interpretations of the findings.

When (and When Not) to Make Exceptions: Links among Age, Precedent Setting Decisions, and Argument Evaluation.

Negative precedents are set when, in the absence of mitigating conditions, social rules are not enforced by relevant authorities. This study examined the effects of normative (i.e., to enforce rules) and nonnormative arguments (i.e., to "make exceptions") on decisions that could establish negative precedents and whether those effects differed for children and adolescents. As expected, on baseline problems, age correlated positively with decision-making performance. After receiving normative arguments, normative decisions increased and adolescents-but not preadolescents-transferred their understanding to novel problems. Nonnormative arguments led to decrements in normative decisions across ages. However, only for preadolescents did performance decrements following nonnormative arguments transfer to novel problems. Discussion focuses on the abilities to engage in "metacognitive intercession," variability in children's and adolescents' decisions, and developments in the understanding of the consequences of violating the social rules.

Thin idealization and causal attributions mediate the association between culture and obesity stereotypes: An examination of Chinese and American adolescents.

Few studies have examined age or cultural differences in the stereotypes adolescents have of persons with obesity. The present research explored the hypotheses that American adolescents have more negative obesity stereotypes than Chinese adolescents and that the effects of culture are mediated by weight attributions and thin idealization. Participants (N = 335; 181 female; M age = 14.83 years, SD = 1.57 years) completed measures of thin idealization and causal attributions and made generalizations from and attributions of stereotypical personality characteristics to obese figures. Not only did stereotypes differ between countries, but generalizations of negative characteristics from obese figures increased with age. In addition, American adolescents more firmly endorsed the 'thin ideal' and were more likely to attribute obesity to internal causes that Chinese adolescents. As anticipated, between-country differences in stereotyping were mediated by thin idealization and causal attributions. Findings are discussed in terms of the 'doctrine of the mean', social identity theory, and dual-process theories. Statement of Contribution The development of obesity stereotypes has been the subject of a number of recent studies. Although scarce, research on adolescents' obesity stereotypes indicates that the strength of these stereotypes increases with age and that these increases are mediated by thin idealization and causal attributions. The current research adds to this growing literature that differences between Chinese adolescents' and American adolescents' obesity stereotypes - in terms of the assignment of stereotypical traits to people with obesity and the generalization of negative traits from an individual person with obesity to people with obesity as a group - are mediated by thin idealization and attributions about obesity's causes. The research also indicates that (1) age differences in obesity stereotyping vary as a function of the method used to measure stereotypes, (2) Chinese adolescents are less likely than American adolescents to attribute obesity to characterological flaws, and (3) American adolescents idealize thinness more than Chinese adolescents.

Adolescents' base rate judgments, metastrategic understanding, and stereotype endorsement.

Developmental reversals are counterintuitive age trends wherein age is negatively related to optimal responding. We addressed the claims that reversals in judgments and decisions are unlikely between late childhood and adolescence. Children and adolescents indicated the extent to which they endorsed stereotypes salient to adolescents, responded to problems in which base rate evidence conflicted with evidence based on anecdotal evidence (i.e., anecdotal problems) or stereotype-relevant evidence (i.e., stereotypical problems), and indicated the basis for their responses. Normative responses increased with age on anecdotal problems and decreased with age on stereotypical problems, indicating a developmental reversal on the latter problem type. Metaprocedural competence mediated the age-related increases on anecdotal problems and moderated the age-related declines on stereotypical problems; furthermore, on stereotypical problems, endorsement of relevant stereotypes mediated the age-related declines in performance. Findings are discussed from a dual-process perspective that emphasizes gist-based problem representations, a "metacognitive gap," and age-related dissociations between stereotypical problems and metaprocedural competence.

Age differences in optimism bias are mediated by reliance on intuition and religiosity.

The relationships among age, optimism bias, religiosity, creationist beliefs, and reliance on intuition were examined in a sample of 211 high school students (Mage=16.54years). Optimism bias was defined as the difference between predictions for positive and negative live events (e.g., divorce) for the self and age peers. Results indicated that older adolescents displayed less optimism bias, were less religious, believed less in creationism, and relied on intuition less than younger adolescents. Furthermore, the association between age and optimism bias was mediated by religiosity and reliance on intuition but not by creationist beliefs. These findings are considered from a dual-process theoretic perspective that emphasizes age increases in metacognitive abilities and epistemological beliefs and age declines in impulsive judgments. Research directed toward examining alternative explanations of the association among religiosity, age, and optimism bias is recommended.

Heuristics and biases: interactions among numeracy, ability, and reflectiveness predict normative responding.

In Stanovich's (2009a, 2011) dual-process theory, analytic processing occurs in the algorithmic and reflective minds. Thinking dispositions, indexes of reflective mind functioning, are believed to regulate operations at the algorithmic level, indexed by general cognitive ability. General limitations at the algorithmic level impose constraints on, and affect the adequacy of, specific strategies and abilities (e.g., numeracy). In a study of 216 undergraduates, the hypothesis that thinking dispositions and general ability moderate the relationship between numeracy (understanding of mathematical concepts and attention to numerical information) and normative responses on probabilistic heuristics and biases (HB) problems was tested. Although all three individual difference measures predicted normative responses, the numeracy-normative response association depended on thinking dispositions and general ability. Specifically, numeracy directly affected normative responding only at relatively high levels of thinking dispositions and general ability. At low levels of thinking dispositions, neither general ability nor numeric skills related to normative responses. Discussion focuses on the consistency of these findings with the hypothesis that the implementation of specific skills is constrained by limitations at both the reflective level and the algorithmic level, methodological limitations that prohibit definitive conclusions, and alternative explanations.

Age differences in understanding precedent-setting decisions and authorities' responses to violations of deontic rules.

To examine age trends in precedent-setting decisions and the effects of these decisions on perceptions of authorities, preadolescents and adolescents were presented with deontic rule infractions that occurred in the absence or presence of mitigating circumstances. In Study 1, in the absence of mitigating circumstances, adolescents recommended punishing rule violations more than preadolescents; when mitigating circumstances were present, adolescents recommended punishing infractions less than preadolescents. In Study 2, before and after receiving information that authorities had punished or permitted rule violations, participants indicated their beliefs in authority legitimacy, rule strength, and rule deterrence value. In the absence of mitigating circumstances, beliefs strengthened when infractions were punished and beliefs weakened when infractions were permitted. When mitigating circumstances were present and authorities punished violations, preadolescents' legitimacy and deterrence beliefs strengthened. Adolescents' deterrence beliefs strengthened, but their beliefs in authority legitimacy weakened. When justifiable infractions were permitted, preadolescents' legitimacy and deterrence beliefs weakened, whereas adolescents' beliefs strengthened. Discussion focuses on age differences in legitimacy beliefs and understanding the consequences of setting precedents and on the relevance of the findings to theories of deontic reasoning, moral judgments, and epistemological development.

College students' awareness of irrational judgments on gambling tasks: a dual-process account.

In 2 studies, the authors examined college students' awareness of irrational judgments on gambling tasks. Participants could express a preference between 2 gambles with equivalent ratios (1:10 vs. 10:100) for Study 1 or no preference for Study 2. Participants also rated their certainty that each response option (i.e., 1:10, 10:100, no preference) was rational (analytically based processing) or irrational (experientially based processing of the ratio information). Only a minority of participants in each study was certain that the only analytically based, rational response was no preference. Those participants who were unaware of the analytically based rational response engaged in more formal and informal gambling activities in comparison with others. The authors interpreted the results as evidence of the importance of regulating dual analytical and experiential processes on gambling-related decision making and behavior.

There's something about obesity: culture, contagion, rationality, and children's responses to drinks "created" by obese children.

Theories of the development of obesity stereotypes cannot easily explain the stigma associated with being obese. Evidence that important similarities exist between the symptoms of obesity and contagious illnesses, young children have "theories" of illnesses, and obesity stereotypes are among the earliest that children develop led to the hypothesis that children would find beverages purportedly created by obese children less tasteful and more memorable than beverages created by average weight children. After assignment to two story conditions in which a child became ill after eating an unfamiliar food, Caucasian-American and Chinese 7- and 10-year-olds sampled identically flavored "obese-created" and "average-created" beverages. Taste ratings were lower, ratings of the chances of feeling sick were higher, and memory was superior for obese-created drinks than for average-created drinks, particularly when the character in the story contracted a contagious illness and memory was scored for "gist." Finally, children often created the false memory that the story character was an obese beverage creator. The roles of contagion and magical beliefs are discussed, as are the rationality of children's responses and the relevance of the findings for theories of obesity stereotypes.

Developmental and individual differences in conditional reasoning: effects of logic instructions and alternative antecedents.

In Study 1, 10-, 13-, and 16-year-olds were assigned to conditions in which they were instructed to think logically and provided alternative antecedents to the consequents of conditional statements. Providing alternatives improved reasoning on two uncertain logical forms, but decreased logical responding on two certain forms; logic instructions improved reasoning among adolescents. Correlations among inferences and verbal ability were found primarily when task conditions created conflict between automatic and controlled inferences. In Study 2, when the cognitive demands of the logic instructions were reduced, 10-year-olds made more logically correct inferences, but only when a conditional's consequents were strongly associated with alternative antecedents. Discussion focuses on the ability to inhibit invited inferences and the role of automatically activated memories.

Domain-specific identity, epistemic regulation, and intellectual ability as predictors of belief-biased reasoning: a dual-process perspective.

To explore the hypothesis that domain-specific identity development predicts reasoning biases, adolescents and young adults completed measures of domain-general and domain-specific identity, epistemic regulation, and intellectual ability and evaluated arguments that either supported or threatened their occupational goals. Biases were defined as the use of sophisticated reasoning to reject goal-threatening arguments and the use of cursory reasoning to accept goal-supportive arguments. Across two measures of bias, hierarchical regression analyses showed that domain-specific vocational identity and epistemic regulation best predicted reasoning biases. Neither age nor intellectual ability predicted significant variance in biases after vocational identity and epistemic regulation scores were entered into the regression equations. The results support the thesis that biases in specific domains can be explained both by domain-specific personality attributes and by domain-general metacognitive dispositions to monitor reasoning and decontextualize problem structure from superficial contents. A dual-process framework is proposed to explain the relationships among identity, epistemic regulation, age, intellectual ability, and reasoning biases.

Theories of conditional reasoning: a developmental examination of competing hypotheses.

Children and adolescents were presented with problems that contained deontic (i.e., if action p is taken, then precondition q must be met) or causal (i.e., if event p occurs, then event q will transpire) conditionals and that varied in the ease with which alternative antecedents could be activated. Results showed that inferences were linked to the availability of alternative antecedents and the generation of "disabling" conditions (claims that the conditionals were false under specific circumstances). Age-related developments were found only on problems involving indeterminate inferences. Correlations among inferences differed for children and adolescents. The findings provide stronger support for domain-general theories than for domain-specific theories of reasoning and suggest, under some conditions, age-related changes in the roles of implicit and explicit processing.

Development of quantitative reasoning and gender biases.

One hundred twenty-seven 7-, 9-, and 11-year-old children were presented large or small samples of own-gender enhancing or other-gender enhancing observations. Children read arguments based on the observations, rated argument intelligence, judged the number of other children to whom the observations could be generalized, and provided verbal justifications for their judgments. Own-gender reasoning biases declined with age; these declines were, however, partially accounted for by declines in the strength of self-reported gender affiliations. Reasoning biases--demonstrated by problem-to-problem shifts in reasoning quality-were constrained by sample size, indicating a modest degree of rationality even among 7-year-olds. Specifically, biases co-existed with reasonably limited generalizations from small samples of own-gender evidence and with reasonably extensive generalizations from large samples of other-gender evidence. Children were thus able to satisfy motivations for own-gender favoritism and reason in accord with the law of large numbers. Several explanations of the findings-based on changes in the salience of gender, multiple classification skills, and the ability to reason independently from beliefs-are offered.