Failure Feedback and The Transmission of Gendered Beliefs about Ability

The Brilliance Stereotype associates raw, innate high intellectual ability to men, but not women (Leslie et al., 2015). Such gender stereotyped beliefs about intellectual abilities emerge early (by the age of 6, e.g., Bian et al., 2017), extend into adulthood (e.g., Storage et al., 2020) and can have pernicious effects on behaviour (e.g., Bian et al., 2018; Master et al., 2016). Yet, the sources of development of the brilliance stereotype are seldom investigated. The present research explores the feedback children receive from their parents in response to failure as a potential source of gendered information about intellectual ability.
\nAcross two empirical studies, feedback provided by parents to their 5- and 6-year-old children (NStudy1 = 136; NStudy2 = 114) was recorded as they made their way through a challenging puzzle activity (Study One and Two) described as being for “really really smart kids” (Study Two). Parental feedback was recorded and categorized using a coding scheme I developed based on previous research (e.g., Haimovitz & Dweck, 2016). Feedback utterances were coded as either person-oriented (fixed messages, e.g., “this is too hard for you”), process- oriented (growth messages, e.g., “you need practice”), or other messages (e.g., instructions, statements, questions, product messages). Moreover, parents' mindsets and gender stereotyping attitudes were examined to assess their influence on the feedback provided and their relation to children’s mindsets.
\nOverall, results from both studies suggest that, in the face of setbacks, parents provide more growth-related messages to boys compared to girls. Specifically, boys received more strategy- and help-focused messages (Study One), as well as more pedagogical questions, product
\nfeedback, and instructions (Study Two). In contrast, girls received less growth-related encouragement in response to failure, which may imply that their efforts are perceived as futile, reinforcing the brilliance stereotype that boys are inherently smarter. Additionally, parents’ mindsets were related to their stereotypical beliefs, yet were not predictive of feedback provided nor did they correlate with children’s implicit beliefs about ability. The findings provide valuable insights about how messages about intellectual ability are communicated within parent-child dynamics, highlighting the potential role of failure feedback in the development of children’s gender stereotypes.

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