Memory biases for gender‐typed images in a gender‐diverse group of children

Abstract

Self‐socialization accounts of gender development suggest that children attend more to people of their own gender, activities associated with their own gender and stereotype‐consistent examples in their environment. Evidence comes from research showing children's memory biases for such stimuli. This study sought to replicate these memory biases in 367 6‐ to 11‐year‐old transgender, cisgender and nonbinary children. Children were shown stereotype‐consistent and counter‐stereotypical images related to feminine‐ and masculine‐typed activities performed by girls/women or boys/men. Results showed that transgender and cisgender children showed better recall for activities related to their own gender than the other gender. Neither group showed better recall for own‐gender characters, and transgender children better recalled other‐gender characters. None of the three groups better recalled stereotype‐consistent than counter‐stereotypical images in probed recall, although all groups showed better recall for counter‐stereotypical than stereotype‐consistent images in free recall. These findings provide partial support for self‐socialization accounts of gender development.