A study by Japanese universities found that children associate the traits of kindness and intelligence with traditional gender stereotypes of femininity and masculinity as early as between 4 and 7 years old.
The findings, published early this month in the journal Scientific Reports, looked at 565 Japanese boys and girls and discovered that girls start believing when they are age 4 that they are nicer than boys, while more boys believe they are comparatively smarter by the time they turn 7.
The researchers, whose report was published online on Oct. 11, sought to discover the origin of stereotypes in Japan, which the World Economic Forum this year placed at 116 out of 146 countries in terms of a gender gap.
The authors noted that fixed gender roles foster and entrench gender disparities. It starts at a young age when children are steered toward certain types of classes, which later affects their occupations as adults. An example is the field of science, where fewer women work than men.
In the study, researchers from institutions including Kyoto University told the group of children hypothetical stories of adults and children displaying "nice" or "smart" traits. Using photos and stick figures of both genders, the children were asked to choose the gender they associated with each of those characteristics.
More than 70 percent of girls from all age groups saw kindness as a female trait.
Regarding intelligence, no gender differences were observed for 4- to 6-year-old children, but by the time they hit the age of 7, there was a shift, with more boys linking it with their gender than girls.
The research team was surprised to discover that Japanese children start associating "brilliance" as a male trait later than children in the United States, ranked 27th in the World Economic Forum report. Outside studies show that most American children start doing so when they are 6 years old, it said.
Parental attitudes did not seem to affect the children's responses about intelligence in the study.
The authors speculated that one reason could be that Japanese parents do not expect stereotypical gender abilities, particularly intellectual ones, until their children are of school age, thus treating their preschool children equally.
Further studies on parental gender attitudes toward older children are necessary, they said.
Yusuke Moriguchi, a Kyoto University associate professor who was involved in the research, noted how casually stereotypes could mark children.
"Of-the-cuff remarks by parents and educators may influence children's thoughts. I want to mitigate gender assumptions by finding the origins of stereotypes."
