Even when aiming to express equality, speech can inadvertently reinforce gender stereotypes due to subtle linguistic cues. For instance, a statement like “Girls are as good as boys at math” suggests boys are the standard for comparison.
Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has found that such stereotypes can be countered by a simple gesture. Placing two palms at the same height to signify "equality," alongside an SCS, led children to express more egalitarian beliefs compared to those who saw no gesture or an unequal one.
The study was conducted by Yihan Qian, a doctoral student in developmental psychology, and Lin Bian, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and director of the Early Social Thinkers (EAST) Lab at UChicago. Susan Goldin-Meadow co-authored the paper. The research received support from Bian’s CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation.
Bian explained: “My lab studies stereotypes and biases, and we have found that many harmful stereotypes begin to form in early childhood... We’re working to create interventions that get to the root of these stereotypes early on.”
Qian's exploration into this field began during her Master’s program in social sciences where she collaborated with Goldin-Meadow before joining Bian’s lab as manager. She attended seminars and classes that prompted her interest in how language and gestures interact.
Qian stated: “I started to wonder which modality children are more likely to rely on when making social inferences.” Encouraged by her professors, she developed a study examining this relationship.
In their experiments, researchers introduced children to a fictional planet with girls and boys. Some children heard statements about activities like "yuzzing" without gestures; others saw an equal gesture accompany these statements. Children exposed only to verbal statements favored boys for yuzzing while those who saw equal gestures showed no bias.
Goldin-Meadow remarked: “It's not a gesture we had seen before... What we’ve shown is that you can mitigate this subtle bias by displaying an equality gesture along with the sentence.”
A second study explored whether any gesture could influence children's perceptions or if it was specifically the equal gesture causing change. Results mirrored earlier findings; unequal gestures led children to favor boys over girls.
Qian commented: “Gestures are a powerful yet often overlooked modality... There is much more we can learn.” Bian suggested educational applications for these findings: teachers and parents might use equal gestures against stereotype endorsement among children.
“If left unaddressed,” Bian noted, “stereotypes can significantly influence a child’s interest and their future career decisions.” While not solving stereotyping entirely, using equal gestures offers a straightforward solution.
The team plans further research on whether biased gestures could instill new stereotypes even when language remains unbiased.
Citation: ‘Gesture counteracts gender stereotypes conveyed through subtle linguistic cues.’ Qian, Goldin-Meadow, and Bian, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Jan. 21, 2025.
Funding: National Science Foundation