Gender Bias in Observers' Perceptions of Infants' Sex: It's a Boy Most of the Time!

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the extent to which observers are biased to assign a male gender to infants whose actual gender is unknown. Male and female college students were instructed to assign a gender label to each of 60 photographs of infants ranging in age from 3 to 13 mo. Results indicated greater accuracy in identifying male infants as well as a bias toward assigning the male gender at all infant ages except 3 mo. A second group of students were asked to rate the cuteness of each photograph. Results suggested that specific facial features and degree of perceived cuteness influenced students' assignments of gender labels. Methodological implications for observational research are noted.