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Observer bias in scoring boys' and girls' aggression

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Abstract

In order to examine the possibility that the attribution of more aggression to boys may be in part a function of observer bias, 40 adults were asked in Study 1 to record the degree of aggression in a series of line drawings that showed children interacting. It was found that a significant subset of both males and females recorded more aggression for boys than for girls when they scanned scenes that showed numerous children interacting. When they rated a series of drawings of two children interacting, males rated boys as significantly more aggressive than girls. Study 2 examined 48 adults' responses under one of three instruction conditions. The findings of Study 1 were replicated. Additionally, it was found that some forms of instruction eliminate sex-typed biases while others yield significant biases among both male and female untrained observers. These results are interpreted in light of the literature on schematic processing. Implications pertaining to the socialization of aggression and to research on sex differences in aggression are discussed.

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This research was partially supported by a grant from the FCAC of the Ministry of Education of Quebec. The authors would like to thank Marie-France Boudreault and Johanne White for assistance with data collection, and Jane Steward, Ph.D., and Marc Atkins, M.A., for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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Lyons, J.A., Serbin, L.A. Observer bias in scoring boys' and girls' aggression. Sex Roles 14, 301–313 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287581

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