Children's interpretation of ambiguous behavior: Evidence for a 'boys are bad' bias

Possible gender-related evaluative biases were investigated among a group o f 64 second and third graders (ages dy 11m to 9y 7m). Participants were sho wn photographs of 8 unfamiliar children, and were told that each had perfor med a particular behavior: Each of the behaviors was consistent with multip le interpretations including a positive interpretation and a negative inter pretation. When the unfamiliar peers were male, participants were move like ly to remember behaviors in unfavorable ways and to select more negative at tributions for the behavior This pattern of results held even among male pa rticipants, who reported greater expectations of liking the male peers.