Sex Roles (2011) 65:119132 DOI 10.

1007/s11199-011-9989-1

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The Color of Childrens Gender Stereotypes

Rachel Karniol

Published online: 11 May 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Abstract To examine the impact of gender and genderrelated color stereotypes, 98 Israeli preschoolers and 3rd graders chose between booklets mismatched in the stereotypicality of color (pink vs. blue) versus illustration (Batman vs. Bratz) and subsequently colored genderstereotyped versus gender-neutral illustrations with male and female-stereotyped color crayons. Color was ignored in booklet choice. More colors were used for figures stereotypically associated with ones own gender. Boys use of female-stereotyped colors did not vary across figures and differed significantly from chance. Boys avoided coloring the female-stereotyped figure and using pink. Girls used fewer female-stereotyped colors for the male-stereotyped figure but used both types of color equally for the other figures. The results were discussed in terms of childrens socialization into gender roles Keywords Children . Gender stereotypes . Color . Gender-stereotyped figures . Drawing

stereotyped or gender-neutral colors in their coloring activities. Consequently, coloring activities provide convenient, unobtrusive and non-verbal means of examining young childrens gender stereotypes. The question addressed in this study is how gender-stereotyped illustrations impact young childrens coloring choices and whether these choices are a function of childrens own gender. That is, if boys and girls differ in their color-related gender stereotypes, their use of color may vary in line with their perceptions of such stereotypes. The current study examined the impact of gender stereotypes on Israeli childrens choice of colors in a coloring task, extending earlier work on childrens gender stereotypes to examine how such stereotypes come into play in childrens everyday behavior in a natural setting. Understanding this interactive process can serve to advance developmental models of gender stereotypes and to provide educational guidelines for both parents and teachers in their provision of coloring materials to young children. Color Preferences and Gender

Introduction This paper focuses on gender stereotypes in childrens coloring choices in coloring books. Gender stereotypes can impact childrens coloring activities in two ways: in the nature of gender-stereotyped illustrations provided for children to color, and in childrens choice of genderI would like to thank Adi Gabai and Hila Shendler for conducting this study. R. Karniol (*) Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel e-mail: rkarniol@post.tau.ac.il

Research with infants and children in several different countries shows the emergence of early perceptions of color (e.g., Bornstein et al. 1976) and of color preferences (e.g., Adams 1987; Zemach et al. 2007), preferences which often differ from those of older children and adults (e.g., Adams 1987; Child et al. 1968; Zentner 2001). Additionally, although no gender differences in color preferences are evident prior to 24 months (e.g., Jadva et al. 2010; Zemach et al. 2007), color preferences become gender-differentiated soon thereafter and are evident in adulthood. For instance, kindergarten boys prefer green in computer presentation of stories whereas girls prefer red (Passig and Levin 1999). American women express

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preferences for a wider range of colors than men (Holmes and Buchanan 1984; Marzolf and Kirchner 1973) and British womens color preferences peak in the reddishpurple range of warm colors whereas mens color preferences are strongest in the blue-green range of cold colors (Hurlbert and Ling 2007). Gender-differentiated color preferences are also evident in childrens coloring activities. There are two general patterns. First, although the age of gender-differentiated color use varies across studies, American (e.g., Tuman 1999; Turgeon 2008), British (Iijima et al. 2001) and Japanese boys (Iijima et al. 2001) between the ages of 510 generally use significantly fewer colors in their free drawings than girls, and boys often opt to draw in black and white (Tuman 1999). Second, girls use a greater variety of colors, more warm colors, and especially more pinks and purples than boys (Iijima et al. 2001; Tuman 1999; Turgeon 2008). Naturalistic observation of American fifth graders (Boyatzis and Albertini 2000) shows the same pattern of genderdifferentiated color use, with more monochromatic drawings by boys and more varied and more vibrant color use in girls. Color and Gender-Stereotyping Colors are often gender-stereotyped. In many countries, adults have different color preferences for male versus female children and from birth, infants and children are exposed to colors that reflect their gender. Girls clothes, toys, and rooms in Canada (e.g., Pomerleau et al. 1990) and the United States (e.g., Shakin et al. 1985) are colored in variations of pink, and boys clothes, toys, and rooms are colored in variations of blue. This gender-based color dichotomy extends to the pink versus blue congratulations cards for newborn girls versus boys in the United States (Bridges 1993) and the preponderance of pink Halloween costumes for girls (Nelson 2000). Girls Lego world and Barbies social world are both dominated by pink (Falkstrm 2003) and the pink Power Ranger was the sole female in this popular childrens show. A content analysis of toy ads shows that pastels, primarily pink and purple, are used only for girls toys (Pennell 1994). Red and green are also differentially associated with females and males. In a study of American mail-order catalogues, red was significantly more often associated with womens, and not with mens clothing (Frank 1990). In fact, Scherbaum and Shepherd (1987), who discuss a societal aversion to men wearing red (p. 398), found that males dressed in red were perceived by American participants as improperly attired as compared to ones in blue and as compared to women dressed in red. As for green, women prefer warm colorsand green is viewed as one of the cold colors (DeLong and Cerny 1983). In fact, green is twice as prevalent in male versus female infants birth congratula-

tions cards in the United States (Willer 2001) and an infant dressed in a blue/green striped shirt was confidently judged by American participants to be male rather than female (Leone and Robertson 1989). In this light, color plays an important role in childrens emergent gender stereotyping. First, reliance on color allows children to disambiguate gender-ambiguous contexts. To elaborate, in a study with American 25 year-olds (Cherney et al. 2006a), children were shown photographs of new toys from a toy catalogue. Each toy had been classified by adults as appropriate for males, for females, neutral, or ambiguous. Color was the primary justification in childrens classification of ambiguous toys as more appropriate for one versus the other gender. Across all toys, boys and girls did not differ in their citation of color as the reason for classifying a given toy as more appropriate for a given gender, suggesting that even at this young age, both male and female children clearly associate color and gender. About 95% of the children identified pink as a color for girls whereas blue was somewhat less strongly associated with boys. Second, color drives stereotyped-based expectations as to the association of objects, clothing, dispositions, and activities with individuals of a given gender. For instance, as remarked by a 6-year-old American boy, if girls are going to play with trucks, theyd better play with girl trucksnamely, pink ones (Gelman et al. 2004, p. 105). Even 1824-month-old North American infants associate pink with females and blue with males, as evident in a selective looking task involving violations of gender-based expectancies (Eichstedt et al. 2002). In a recent study conducted in Britain (Tenenbaum et al. 2010), drawings of figures wearing green were generally identified as boys by 6-year-old children. Similarly, Picariello et al. (1990) had 36 year old American children choose which of twin dolls, dressed in pink and blue, was associated with different adjectives (e.g., strong/gentle) and professions (firefighter/ nurse). Stereotyping increased with age, and at all ages, color of clothing impacted childrens impressions of the weird twin. Although there were no reported effects of gender in the above study, boys anecdotal comments are consistent with their greater distortion of gender counter-stereotypic information. Thus, a first grader insisted that a male twin, labeled clearly with a male name, but dressed in pink, was nonetheless a girl, a phenomenon Martin and Ruble (2010) discuss as identity negation. Identity negation could be interpreted as reflecting lack of gender constancy, but boys and girls of these ages do not differ in their levels of gender constancy (Karniol 2009; Levy and Carter 1989) and gender constancy at these ages does not generally predict diverse measures of gender stereotyping or genderstereotyped behavior (e.g., Gelman et al. 1986; Lobel and

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Menashri 1993; Serbin and Sprafkin 1986). In fact, the preponderance of evidence suggests that boys are more highly gender-stereotyped (e.g., Urberg 1982), their gender stereotypes are less flexible and more stringently held (e.g., Archer 1984; Bussey and Bandura 1999), and they engage in more distortion of gender counter-stereotypic information (e.g., Carter and Levy 1988). Maccoby (1998) contends that as part of developing a gender-based group identity, children engage in behaviors that mark themselves off from the other gender symbolically (p. 44) and that boys are more concerned with distinguishing themselves from girls than vice versa. The rigidity of boys gender stereotypes may partially reflect the greater restrictiveness of parents with respect to gender counter-stereotypic behavior in boys than in girls (e.g., Kane 2006). Thus, American parents hold more rigid stereotypes of males (e.g., Leaper 2002) and exert greater pressure towards conformity to gender-stereotyped behavior in boys (Leaper and Friedman 2007). American parents apparently also actively prevent young boys from using female-stereotyped toys (e.g., theres not many toys I wouldnt get him, except Barbie, Kane 2006, p. 160), and female-stereotyped colors (e.g., He likes pink and I try not to encourage him to like pink just because, you know, hes not a girl, Kane 2006, p. 160). In Spain as well, boys are apparently never dressed in pink (de Miguel 1984). Parallel social forces may well account for girls use of a greater variety of colors. If there are fewer restrictions on girls in terms of their behavior in gender-related domains, girls would be expected to be more flexible in their adoption of stereotypes related to gender and to color. In fact, both male and female British children view male gender roles as more rigidly proscribed (e.g., Henshaw et al. 1992). Importantly, then, because selves are themselves gendered, they necessarily play a role in the way they structure and conceptualize the social world and the gender stereotypes that are embedded in it. Coloring in Childrens Lives Coloring and activity books account for about $230 million dollars in annual sales in the U.S. alone (Raugust 2003), representing about 12% of the dollar value of all childrens books sold (Fitzpatrick and McPherson 2010). In many countries, coloring books are prevalent in young childrens homes and the educational settings they attend, and much coloring activity involves colored crayons. Crayola, the company most associated with coloring activities, sells about 200 million crayons annually, with about 500 million dollars in sales in over 80 countries in 2006 (Jana 2007), and sales of about 100 million dollars in the U.S. annually (Liebeck 2001), with sales peaking at the back to school season. Crayola estimates that the average child in the U.S.

colors for 28 min a day and uses 730 crayons by his or her 10th birthday. Gruber and McNinch (1994) found that American kindergarten through 3rd grade children tend to view coloring as a school-based rather than a home-based activity, with studies in the United States (Bae 2004), Britain (Cox and Rowlands 2000), and Israel (Toren 2007) reporting that artwork (i.e., drawing, coloring, and painting) accounts for between an hour to an hour and a half of preschool and kindergarten daily class time. Given the variety of colors available for drawing, how do children make choices as to what colors to use? Preschool children tend to color objects in their canonical colors (e.g., frogsgreen) and explain their coloring choices in terms of the canonical color of objects. However, when a figure does not have a canonical color, there are some cross-cultural differences in childrens choice of colors (e.g., Cox et al. 1999; Steward et al. 1992). For instance, Steward and colleagues found that American children use a greater variety of colors than Japanese children in drawing a human figure and Finnish children use more green than British children in coloring the figure of a man (Burkitt et al. 2007). Even in coloring figures with canonical color though, about 25% of childrens coloring choices reflect their personal color preferences (Gleason et al. 2004) and color choices in adults as well are clearly objects of individual preferences (Eysenck 1941; Guilford and Smith 1959). Color preferences interact with the valence of the figure being colored. For instance, Burkitt et al. (2003) found that British childrens favorite colors were differentially used in a drawing activity. Children 610-years-old used their favorite colors for illustrations labeled as nice (e.g., nice, kind man/dog and nice, lovely tree), disliked colors for coloring illustrations labeled as nasty (e.g., a nasty horrible man/dog/tree), and colors in the middle range of the liking scale for coloring neutral illustrations. Importantly, color is also used by children to distinguish their own, and others depictions of males and females. Toku (2001) found that American and Japanese children living in America drew female figures dressed in warm colors like pink and purple and male figures in cool colors like blue and green. Moreover, variations in the gender-stereotyped nature of clothing style and color led 510-year-old children to make gender-stereotyped inferences as to the play preferences of photographed children (Albers 1998). The Gender-Stereotyped Nature of Illustrations Coloring itself can be a gendered activity. Although there are coloring books geared to both boys and girls, many coloring books are geared specifically for one gender, as found in a recent analysis of randomly selected coloring books in the United States (Fitzpatrick and McPherson

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2010). Coloring books for girls are dominated by fairies, princesses, and various fashion dolls whereas coloring books for boys feature vehicles, weapons, and action figures (e.g., Fitzpatrick and McPherson 2010). In Britain, coloring books featuring Disney-type princesses are generally the top selling ones for girls and ones featuring action heroes are the top sellers for boys (e.g., Lights, Camera, Action 2007). Childrens coloring books, therefore, provide rich contexts for examining childrens gender stereotypes in their use of color as it relates to different types of illustrations. What constitutes a gender-stereotyped illustration? Gender is often cued by name (e.g., Mickey/Minnie Mouse), appearance (including clothing and long hair, Hodge and Tripp 1986), and the gender-stereotypicality of the activities engaged in (Arthur and White 1996). The use of childrens toys in general, and those based on media figures in particular, as illustrations in childrens coloring books necessarily raises the issue of the genderdifferentiation of toys. Adults use gender-related cues to differentiate the world of toys into male-appropriate and female-appropriate ones. On a scale of 19 with the end points representing appropriate only for girls or appropriate only for boys, adults rated a Mickey Mouse toy as 5.01but the equivalent Minnie Mouse toy was rated 3.33 on the same scale (Campenni 1999). Similarly, the Power Rangers, Batman, and other male superheroes were rated higher than 6 on the same 9-point scale but female superheroes were rated only 3.22, (Campenni 1999), clearly showing that adults dichotomize the world of childrens toys. The relevant question, though, is what constitutes a gender-stereotyped figure for children? Dolls, especially fashion dolls, and action figures are probably the most gender-stereotyped of all childrens toys. By 24 months, girls look more often at drawings of dolls than of cars whereas boys evidence the opposite pattern (Jadva et al. 2010). By age 3, girls select Barbies and other dolls more often to play with and by age 5, boys select more action figures to play with than do girls (Servin et al. 1999). Nelson (2005) found that boys rooms included more male figures, especially adult male action figures, whereas girls rooms included more female figures, especially baby and child figures. Of course, the content of young childrens rooms reflects both parental and childrens preferences (cf., Rheingold and Cook 1975). Yet apparently, toy purchases that reflect childrens requests are more gender-stereotyped than ones that reflect parental preferences (Fisher-Thompson 1993) and childrens Christmas toy requests are highly gender-stereotyped, with British boys asking for and getting more action figures, and girls, asking for and getting more dolls (Robinson and Morris 1986). In American childrens letters to Santa, 45% of

girls asked for Barbie dolls and 45% of boys asked for various action figures (Otnes et al. 1994). In fact, sales of Barbie dolls and accessories account for worldwide annual sales ranging from 1 to 2 billion dollars (Casey 2008; Stanley 2005). Young girls also own other types of dolls, including Disney dolls, and Disney Princess play is also prevalent in the United States (Wohlwend 2009). As well, by 2006, approximately 120 million Bratz dolls were sold all over the world (Felgner 2006) and Bratz dolls accounted for about 40% of fashion doll sales in 2006 (McAllister 2007). The fact that Bratz did not replace Barbie in girls preferential world indicates that both types of dolls are favored by girls. Unsurprisingly, Bratz dolls are assigned scores of 1.53 by adults, with 1 indicating only for girls and 9 indicating only for boys (Blakemore and Centers 2005). In a parallel fashion, male action figures, which accounted for about 1.3 billion dollars in worldwide sales in 2006 (Ebenkamp 2006), are stereotypically associated with boys. In particular, both Batman and Superman are recognizable superheroes even by individuals who have never read a comic book (Bongco 2000), possibly because of their prevalence in toy stores all over the world (Fleming 1996). They have become what Macdougall (2003) calls transnational commodities. Batman in particular appears to hold a special fascination for boys (e.g., Gardner 1982), with a Warner Brothers executive commenting that Batman is literally part of the process of boyhood, especially for 611 year olds (Cooney 2004, p. 148). This fascination is evident in boys tendency to draw male superheroes, including Batman, in their spontaneous drawings (Gardner 1982; McNiff 1982). Importantly, boys play with action figures (Marsh 1999), not with dolls, denying vehemently their association with dolls (e.g., preschool boys protest Only girls play with dolls! and boys dont have dolls, Lowe 1998, p. 218). This dissociation is also evident when in a letter to Santa a boy declares, No Barbie stuff because Im a boy! (OCass and Clarke 2002, p. 44). In fact, playing with Barbie dolls is taken to be a sign of gender-variance (e.g., Gerouki 2010) and boys tease each other with accusations of playing with Barbie dolls (Renold 2004). In this light, then, illustrations of dolls and action figures are clearly gender-stereotyped in the eyes of children and adults. The Cultural Context The emergence of gender stereotypes is especially interesting to examine in Israeli children. First, gender is integral to the structure of Hebrew (Tobin 2001), requiring speakers to differentiate and inflect verbs and nouns by gender (e.g., a female versus a male baby eating is tinoket oxelet and tinok oxel). Israeli children below age 3 already evidence facility with the gender system as reflected in their early grammar

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(e.g., Berman 1986; Guiora et al. 1982; Levy 1983), suggesting that they are sensitized to gender and genderstereotyping of activities at an early age. On the other hand, Jewish-Israeli children attend formal educational settings very early, with 89% of 3-year-olds and 94% of 4-year-olds attending preschools 6 days a week for at least 5 hours a day, with about 36% of these children in daycare settings till 4 or 5 pm (Israel Central Bureau of Statistics 2007). Exposure to boys and girls of ones own age who are likewise engaged in similar activities during the day could serve to minimize perceptions of genderbased differentiation in preschool children. Yet gender stereotypes among Israeli preschool and school children appear to parallel those in North America, being evident in gender-differentiated choices of birthday presents for other children (Lobel and Menashri 1993), gender-based justifications of television viewing choices (e.g., Girls dont play with WWF. Girls are delicate. They play other things, Lemish 1998, p. 843), and gender-based recommendations of punishment for cross-gender toy play (e.g., he should not play with girls toys; boys should play with boys stuff, Lobel and Menashri 1993, p. 153). Israeli girls also express greater liking of hypothetical girls described as liking dolls (vs. football) and jump rope (vs. building model airplanes) (Lobel et al. 2001). The Current Study Preschoolers and 3rd grade children were selected as participants in this study. These represent ages that respectively coincide with the onset of gender stereotypes (e.g., Eisenberg et al. 1982; Martin et al. 1995) and gender role identity (e.g., Boldizar 1991) as identified in previous research. As well, Maccoby (1998) suggested that when children transition from preschool to elementary school, their status as members of same gender groups of boys or girls become more important to them. More relevant still, Rosenblatt and Winner (1988) found that preschoolers art becomes more rigid and more stereotypical as they move through middle elementary school grades, and Cox (1992) reports a general reduction in childrens spontaneous drawing after about age 8. The purpose of the current study was to examine childrens behavior in a coloring task featuring a stereotypically male illustration, a stereotypically female illustration, and a genderneutral illustration. The importance of such coloring behavior is that it can reflect 1) idiosyncratic color preferences, 2) gender-based color preferences, 3) illustration-specific color preferences, 4) color preferences that reflect the genderstereotyped nature of the illustrations, and finally, 5) higher level interactions between these possibilities. To elaborate, if childrens idiosyncratic color preferences independently of childrens genderguide their color

choices, there should be no differences between boys and girls in their coloring behavior in general, or as a function of the gender-stereotyped nature of the figures being colored. That is, unless there is a canonical color associated with a given object, a child who likes a given color should use that color across the board, irrespective of the genderstereotypicality of the illustration. But it is possible that children of each gender have different color preferences that are independent of their respective gender stereotypes. If this is the case, color choice should be associated with main effects for childrens gender but the nature of the illustration being colored should have no effect on the choice of colors used. A third possibility is that both boys and girls have the same color-related gender stereotypes. It follows, then, that childrens gender will not impact color choice whereas the type of illustration being colored will impact it, with male-stereotyped illustrations being colored in male-stereotyped colors, femalestereotyped illustrations being colored in female-stereotyped colors, and gender-neutral illustrations being colored in a random variety of colors. The prediction regarding genderneutral illustrations is based on the findings of Burkitt et al. (2003) who found that British boys and girls do not differ in their use of color for gender-neutral figures (e.g., dogs and trees) and that pink is not used in gender-neutral contexts. Yet a final possibility is that boys and girls do not hold the same gender stereotypes or gender-differentiated color stereotypes. If this is the case, there should be interactions between the colors used, the gender-stereotyped nature of the illustrations, and childrens gender. Specifically, differences between boys and girls in the use of color would be expected on gender-stereotypical figures but not on a gender-neutral figure (cf., Burkitt et al. 2003). Moreover, to the extent that gender stereotypes and the linkage between color and gender develop with age, younger boys and girls should evidence less differentiation in their use of color than older ones. An additional issue to be addressed in this study is what guides childrens choices when two gender stereotypes conflict. Specifically, illustrations of male versus femalestereotyped figures are generally color-matched, with female-stereotypic colors for female stereotyped figures and male-stereotypic colors for male-stereotyped figures. For instance, Boyatzis and Eades (1999) had American preschool and kindergarten children select which coloring sheets they preferred, where the illustrations had been classified by adults and children as stereotypically female, stereotypically male, or gender-neutral. Irrespective of whether the illustrations were uncolored or colored to coincide with the relevant illustrations genderstereotypicality, boys and girls both preferred to color sheets in which the illustrations were stereotypically tied to their own gender and there were no age by gender interactions. But what happens when color cues are

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misleading? Martin and Ruble (2004) suggest that as part of gender socialization, children become gender detectives who search for gender-related cues. Focusing on color may be less informative than focusing on other cues when these conflict. In line with this, Cherney et al. (2006a, b) found that the association of a blue car with a female driver and a baby passenger led to it being classified as a female toy by over 50% of the children. Hence, children may opt to be guided by other gender-related cues and to ignore color when it provides unclear or ambiguous gender-related information, in this case, leading children to use the gender-stereotypicality of the illustration to guide their choice. The Research Questions To summarize, the first hypothesis relates to how children resolve conflicts based on the incongruity between genderrelated color stereotypes and gender-stereotyped illustrations. Based on prior research showing that children may ignore color cues, I hypothesized that: H1 Both boys and girls will evidence choices that reflect illustration-based gender-stereotypes rather than colorbased ones The second question concerned the relative rigidity of boys versus girls in their use of color. Specifically, do boys and girls differ in the variety of colors they use for coloring? Previous research (e.g., Turgeon 2008) suggests that boys use a smaller variety of colors and consequently, I hypothesized that: H2a Boys will use a smaller variety of colors in their drawings than girls H2b Boys will evidence little differentiation in the variety of color used across illustrations that vary in their gender-stereotypicality The third focus was the gender-stereotyped nature of colors and how this would impact boys and girls use of color across the different illustrations. I hypothesized that: H3a Boys will use fewer female-stereotyped colors than girls, irrespective of the gender-stereotyped nature of the illustrations H3b Girls will vary their use of female-stereotyped colors, using more such colors for female-stereotyped illustrations and fewer such colors for malestereotyped illustrations, with gender-neutral illustrations in-between Finally, concerning the development of gender stereotypes, one would anticipate that if childrens understanding

of the link between color and gender develops with age, then: H4a Younger children will use a greater variety of color than older ones H4b Younger children will use a greater proportion of female-stereotyped colors than older ones

Method Participants Participants were 98 Jewish boys and girls in a large Israeli city. There were 56, 45-year-old preschoolers, 33 boys and 23 girls, and 42, 78- year-old 3rd graders, 17 boys and 25 girls. Both educational institutions were located in the same middle class neighborhood and permission was obtained to administer the study to both age groups in their classrooms as part of childrens daily classroom activities. Procedure Children in their classes were given a choice between two coloring booklets which were identical except for their cover. One booklet had a pink cover but was illustrated with a drawing of Batman (http://www.online-coloringpictures.com/gallery/DCComics/1238262283batman-sprint. png.html) and the second booklet had a light blue cover but was illustrated with a drawing of a Bratz doll (http://bratzcoloring-pages.com/more/imagepages/image8.html). In the booklets were three drawings which children were asked to color: a fairy, a male action figure, and five stars. The fairy was a Winx Club figure (http://www.freepagescoloring. com/find_coloring/dettagli.php?id=11924), from an Italian TV series shown on Israeli satellite TV and also as an animated film in Israeli movie theatres. The series features female heroines and is clearly targeted at young girls (Swords 2007). The action figure was a BEN 10 figure (http://www.funcoloringpagesforkids.com/viewimage.asp? coloring-pages/Coloring%20Sheets%20-%20Ben10/ben10-coloring-pages1.jpg), from the BEN 10 animated series, shown on Israeli satellite TV, and has been discussed as a Boys brand in Marketing Week (Johnson 2009). The order of presentation of the fairy and the action figure was randomized and the stars were always last in the booklet. Because preliminary analyses indicated that order of the illustrations was not significant either as a main effect or in interaction, this variable is not discussed any further. Each child was provided with a box of eight colored crayons, four colors stereotypically associated with males

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125 Table 1 Variety of colors used, by participant gender and type of figure Type of figure Action Figure Mean 4.36b 3.25a SD 1.85 1.63

(dark/light green/blue) and four colors stereotypically associated with females (red, pink, mauve, purple). Children were told they could use any colors they want for the drawings, with the limitation was that each of the five stars was to be colored in a different color. This instruction was given to ensure that children did not use their favorite color for all the stars. There were no time constraints and children colored for as long as they wanted. It took children about 20 min to finish coloring.

Participant Gender Boys Girls

Fairy Mean 2.95a 4.02b SD 2.39 1.39

Results Testing H1Does Color or Illustration Guide Booklet Choice? Children could choose a booklet on the basis of its color (stereotypically-male or female color) or the illustration on the cover (stereotypically-male or female figure). Children were accorded a 0 if they selected the blue coloring booklet and a 1 if they selected the pink one. For boys, selecting the pink booklet implies a preference for the stereotypicallymale illustration; for girls, selecting the blue booklet implies a preference for the stereotypically-female illustration. To analyze the dichotomous choice data, I used a logistic regression in which childrens gender, age, and the interaction of gender and age, were entered stepwise. Only childrens gender entered the equation, X2(1)=67.66, p<.001, NR2=.665, 2LL=68.03, and the model correctly identified 89% of all children. The means were .12 for boys and .92 for girls; the majority of children of each gender selected the coloring booklet on the basis of the illustration rather than on the basis of the color of the cover. Neither age nor the interaction of gender and age entered the equation. Testing H2a, H2b and H4aDo Gender and Age Impact the Variety of Colors Used Across Figures? The second dependent measure was the variety of colors used for the gender-stereotyped figures, with a range of 1 8. The variety of colors used for the stars was not examined because children had been asked to use a different color for each of the 5 stars. An analysis of variance with type of figure (2) as within participants and child gender and age as between participants was conducted. This analysis showed only a significant interaction between child gender and type of figure in the variety of colors used, F(1,94)=19.61, p<.001, 2 =.17. The relevant means for this interaction are shown in Table 1. As evident in the table, children of each gender used a greater variety of colors for the figure stereotypically associated with their own gender. Further

Variety scores could range from 1 to 8; means not sharing a common subscript are significantly different, p<.001

comparisons showed that this difference was significant for both boys, F(1,48)=11.83, p<.001, 2 =.20, and girls, F(1,46)<7.87, p<.01, 2 =.15. There were no main effects or interactions due to age. Testing H3a and H3b: Do Gender and Age Impact the Proportion of Female-stereotyped Colors Used? To test these hypotheses, for each illustration (stereotypically female/stereotypically male/gender-neutral), I derived a proportion score representing the number of femalestereotyped colors used by the child. The proportion score for each figure could range from 01, with 0 indicating that all the colors were male-stereotyped (light/dark blue/green) and 1 indicating that all the colors were female-stereotyped (red/pink/mauve/purple). The proportion score does not distinguish between children who used only one color of each type versus children who used all four colors of each type. For instance, a child who used 2 colors of each type would get a score of .5, as would a child who used all 4 colors of each type. Note that 11 boys, five younger and six older boys, did not color the fairy. All these boys had chosen the pink booklet with the Batman illustration on the cover. A Chi Square, with correction for continuity, showed that the number of boys who did not color the fairy was significantly greater than expected, X2(1)=9.58, p<.005. Consequently, the subsequent analysis was conducted twice, including and excluding these 11 boys. Analyses of variance were conducted on the arc sine transformed proportions of female stereotyped colors, with type of figure (3) within participants, and gender and age between participants. The first analysis, including all boys, showed a main effect of gender, F(1,94)=12.35, p<.001, 2 =.116, qualified by an interaction with type of figure,

126 Table 2 Proportion of female-stereotyped colors, by participant gender and type of figure Type of figure Participant Gender Boys Girls Action Figure .33a .33a

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Fairy .26a .50b

Stars .33a .50b

Note that the variety of colors and the proportion of colors that were female-stereotyped, are statistically independent dependent measures. This is because the proportion scores are relative to each childs actual use of colors. In fact, correlations between the variety scores and the transformed proportion scores were not significant either for the male figure (r=16, n.s.) or for the female figure, (r=.08, n.s.). Post-hoc analysesAdding Illegal Colors During data coding, it emerged that some preschool children added illegal colors to the drawings. Of the preschoolers, 39 did so, with 7 adding yellow, 13 adding orange, and 19 adding both orange and yellow. Although several preschoolers imported other colors (grey, brown, and black), the addition of these colors was infrequent and there was no evidence of a consistent pattern in their use. To analyze the data for the illegal importation of yellow and orange, a 0 was coded if no color was added, and a 1 was coded if yellow was added or if orange was added. An analysis of variance was conducted on the preschoolers only, with color (yellow/orange) within participants and gender as the only between participants factor. The analysis showed only an interaction between gender and color, F(1,54)=4.44, p<.05, 2 =.08, reflecting the fact that although the proportion of boys and girls who added orange to their drawings did not differ, F<1, n.s., with mean proportions of .55 and .57 respectively, girls added significantly more yellow to their drawings, F(1,54)=5.93, p<.05, with mean proportions of .65 for girls versus .33 for boys. The final analysis was conducted to examine for the relation between preschool boys illegal importation of color and their avoidance of pink. A Chi Square on the frequency of importation of yellow was significant, X2(1)= 5.70, p<.05. Of the 16 boys who had used pink, only two added yellow whereas of the 15 boys who had not used pink, 9 added yellow. The analysis on use of orange in relation to pink avoidance was not significant, X2(1)<1, n.s.

.50 represents random choice; means not sharing a common subscript are significantly different, p<.001

F(2,188)=3.33, p<.05, 2 =.034. The relevant means are shown in Table 2, which shows that whereas boys and girls did not differ in their use of female-stereotyped colors for the action figure, F<2, n.s., boys used fewer female-stereotyped colors for both the fairy, F(1,94)=22.39, p<.001, 2 =.19, and the stars, F(1,94)=6.12, p<.05, 2 =.07, than the girls. In fact, further analyses showed that boys did not vary their use of female-stereotyped colors across the figures, F(2,98)<2, n.s., whereas girls did, F(2,94)=4.95, p<.01, 2 =.095, but girls use of female-stereotyped colors for the fairy and the stars did not differ, F<1, n.s. There were no effects attributable to age of participants. When the above analysis was re-run, excluding those 11 boys who did not color the fairy, the gender by target interaction evidenced a trend, F(2,164)= 2.75, p<.07, 2 =.032, but again, boys proportion of femalestereotyped colors did not vary across the three figures, F<1, n.s. The relevant proportions were .35, .36, and .37 for the action figure, the fairy, and the stars respectively. Age was not significant either as a main effect or in interaction. In the attempt to clarify this issue further, the a priori probability of choosing either female or male-stereotyped colors across all figures was assumed to be random and the observed probability was compared to the expected probability of .50. Boys use of female-stereotyped colors across the three figures was significantly lower than chance, Z=3.23, p<.001, whereas girls use of female-stereotyped colors across the three figures did not differ significantly from chance, Z<1, n.s. Extending this, in coding boys booklets, it became clear that they were not prone to using pink in particular. To examine this issue further, boys use of the color pink was coded such that if a boy used pink for any of the illustrations, he was accorded a 1 and otherwise he was accorded a 0. Since the expected probability of using pink was .125 (1 of 8 colors), the observed probability of using pink for all the drawings was compared to this expected value. The observed value of .039 is significantly lower than expected, Z=3.19, p<.001.

Discussion The purpose of this study was to examine whether childrens gender-linked color preferences rule their choice of coloring booklets as well as whether childrens choice of colors is impacted by their own gender and the genderstereotypicality of the illustrations in question. The first finding was that childrens gender-linked color preferences are overruled by the illustrations on the cover of coloring books. Boys overwhelmingly selected a pink coloring booklet with Batman on its cover. In a complementary fashion, girls overwhelmingly selected a blue coloring

Sex Roles (2011) 65:119132

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booklet with a Bratz doll on its cover. Hence, although color may dominate childrens choices when items are in their own-gender, stereotypical color or in other-gender, stereotypical color (e.g., Picariello et al. 1990), color is a less important cue for children when it conflicts with other gender-linked cues. In this particular instance, depictions of well known, same-gender figures served as cues for the gender-appropriateness of the coloring booklets and there were few children who did not use such cues to guide their choice. Turning to childrens choice of colors, children of each gender used a greater variety of colors for the figure stereotypically associated with their own gender than for the figure stereotypically associated with the other gender. This is in contrast to research findings with childrens free drawing activities (e.g., Iijima et al. 2001; Turgeon 2008) in which girls used a greater variety of colors in their drawings. However, when free drawings are used, boys and girls differ in what they choose to draw (e.g., Bosacki et al. 2008; Reeves and Boyette 1983). Hence, the observed pattern in the current study may well reflect childrens greater liking of those figures that are stereotypically associated with their own gender and possibly, their willingness to spend more time coloring them. This possibility is underlined by a study on computer graphics in which pictures adults identified as appropriate for girls were liked more by girls, and pictures adults identified as appropriate for boys were liked more by boys (Jakobsdttir et al. 1994). But the important question from the current perspective is whether boys and girls choice of colors depends on the gender-stereotypicality of the figures to be colored. The data clearly show a differentiation between boys and girls in the colors used for the three figures. Although boys and girls did not differ in the proportion of female-stereotyped colors used for coloring the male-stereotyped action figure, boys used significantly fewer female-stereotyped colors than girls for coloring the female-stereotyped figure, the fairy. In fact, boys proportion of use of female-stereotyped colors across the three figures was significantly lower than chance, suggesting that boys were actively avoiding female-stereotyped colors. The fact that over 20% of the boys did not color the fairy also expresses their implicit reluctance to be associated with objects and figures stereotypically associated with the female gender. This is even more remarkable since irrespective whether the fairy appeared prior to, or following the action figure, the last page contained the 5 stars and these were colored by the same boys who had avoided coloring the fairy. Importantly, the stars are gender-neutral but boys did not treat them as gender-neutral. Had they done so, their use of female-stereotyped colors for the stars should have converged at around .50, yet they underused female-

stereotyped colors for the stars too. Moreover, when boys use of pink was compared with the expected use of pink on the basis of random choice, boys were shown to significantly underuse pink. In a different context, Eliot (2009) has discussed this as preschool boys aversion to pink (p. 104). These convergent findings clearly show that boys are reluctant to be associated with objects and colors that are female-stereotyped. Other researchers have found parallel patterns of avoidance in boys. For instance, in studies on toy play (e.g., Boston and Levy 1991; Fagot et al. 1986), preschool boys have also been found to avoid other-gender toys whereas preschool girls do not evidence this same differentiation. Torrance (1959) reported the same pattern in testing creativity in boys, with many boys who had been asked to make a nurses kit more interesting refusing, saying, Im a boy. I dont play with things like that (as cited in Rachlin and Vogt 1974, p. 553). It seems, then, that boys use of avoidance is a more general means of dealing with gender stereotype-related conflicts. This pattern fits well with Jordans (1995) claim that boys define masculinity as not female, so that being male is construed as doing things that cannot and should not be done by females. This pattern is also consistent with the notion of gender self-stereotyping (e.g., Guimond et al. 2006), according to which social comparisons between genders increase gender differences because each gender group takes on the stereotypic attributes of its own gender group for the purposes of self-definition. But gender-self stereotyping also requires dissociation from the other gender group, leading to greater perceived differences from the other gender (Bennett and Sani 2008). For the younger boys at least, doing not female in the current context was manifest in two related patterns. First, they avoided using female-stereotyped colors, pink in particular. Second, although younger and older boys did not differ in their tendency to avoid using pink, preschool boys illegally imported the color yellow. This suggests that the illegal importation of color served a different function for boys versus for girls. Specifically, boys appeared to use yellow to substitute for their avoidance of pink. Preschool girls, on the other hand, imported illegal colors as additional colors, indexing their apparent desire to use a greater variety of colors, as has been found in previous research on childrens color use (cf., Iijima et al. 2001; Turgeon 2008). As to why these preschool boys also imported the color orange, it may well be that because younger boys tend to use a greater variety of colors than older ones, these younger boys were actively looking to enhance the variety of colors they used and settled on orange as a color which they did not perceive as genderstereotyped despite its inclusion among the warm colors. This admittedly speculative interpretation receives support

128

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from the finding that Finnish and British children showed a reversal in their use of orange versus yellow in coloring a man, with yellow being used for the man labeled as nice and orange being used for the baseline, neutral figure (Burkitt et al. 2007). One may well question the psychological processes that underlie boys choice not to color the fairy. It is possible that because the fairy is clearly female, the decision reflects boys unwillingness to color a female figure per se. Aternatively, since objects have colors associated with them in memory (e.g., Prez-Carpinelli et al. 1998; Yendrikhovskij et al. 1999), it may well be that for boys, fairies are prototypically pink and not coloring the fairies, then, is a statement about memory color and about unwillingness to be associated with that genderstereotyped color. This possibility is strengthened by the fact that children apparently actively deliberate over their choice of colors in their drawing activities (Coates and Coates 2006). These data, then, underline the differences between boys and girls in how they cope with conflicts that emanate from gender stereotypes. In the current study, boys and girls did not use female-stereotyped colors in coloring figures stereotypically associated with males and they did not differ from each other in this regard; for girls, though, this appears to reflect their understanding of the colors that are appropriate for stereotypically male figures whereas for boys, this pattern appears to reflect their general tendency to avoid using female-stereotyped colors, especially pink. This pattern provides further support for Guilford and Smiths (1959) conclusion that women are more flexible in their use of color than men. But one needs to elaborate the nature of this flexibility in these child participants. Boys inflexibility was reflected in their relative lack of variability in coloring figures that varied in their genderstereotypicality. Younger boys were more flexible than older ones, adding illegal colors. Girls greater flexibility was evident in their ability to vary their choice of color according to the figure in question, using fewer femalestereotyped colors for coloring the male action figure. On the other hand, this may well reflect girls tendency to use color more realistically (Deaver 2009) since male action figures may well be portrayed in fewer colors. The relative lack of developmental effects in these data indicates that gender stereotypes relating to color are relatively well established as early as preschool in Israeli children. Older and younger children did not differ in their choice of coloring booklet, in the variety of colors they used, or in the color schemes they applied to genderstereotypic or gender-neutral figures. The only significant differences between younger and older children were found on the post hoc analyses of the tendency to illegally import colors that were not made specifically available as

part of the research. It was younger boys who differed from older ones as well as from girls in doing so. On the other hand, boys reluctance to color the fairy, their avoidance of pink, and their relative underuse of female-stereotyped colors in coloring all the figures suggests that even preschool boys know the gendered associations of colors. The choices they make in dealing with this knowledge, though, differ from those of their older peers. In contrast, girls do not evidence age effects within this age range, suggesting that they cue in to gendered color schemes earlier and adopt the same strategies for dealing with them. To summarize, the pattern of results in this study underlines the divergent ways that gender stereotypes impact boys and girls (cf., Karniol and Aida 1997), with boys being less flexible in their use of color, largely avoiding colors that are not stereotypically associated with males. This may make boys more efficient in that it eliminates the need for them to make additional decisions as to color use when illustrations vary in content. But, then, this efficiency is at the cost of flexibility. However, the costs of flexibility in the gender realm are probably higher for boys in terms of societal reactions (e.g., Kane 2006; Thorne 1993) and this may be why they are relatively inflexible in their color choices. Nonetheless, the recurrent interaction in this study between childrens gender and the gender-stereotyped nature of the figure being colored indicates that color is used by children as a means of expressing their gender, as well as their color preferences (cf., Chiu et al. 2006). This association of color and gender is also captured in the fact that gender-variant children, those who evidence persistent interests and behaviors typical of the opposite gender (e.g., Gerouki 2010), also choose colors that are inconsistent with the gender-stereotyped nature of colors, in particular, with gender-variant boys opting to use pinks and purples (Perrin et al. 2010). As well, it is important to note that when the figures involved are gender-neutral, no differences between boys and girls of these ages are found in their colors of choice (e.g., Chen and Kantner 1996; Park 1997). Colors and objects are gender-stereotyped and hence, choosing colors is an expression of ones gender identity. Limitations and Future Directions There are several limitations to the current study. First, since children were not offered any gender-neutral colors, it is not possible to know how their availability would have impacted use of the gender-stereotyped colors. It is possible, for instance, that boys who did not color the fairy would have used gender-neutral colors to do so. This possibility is one that could be examined in future research. But irrespectively, this does not obviate the need to account

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for some boys decision not to color the fairy. Presumably, they, like some of their peers, could have used the malestereotyped colors if they were driven to avoid using female-stereotyped colors. This study, then, has demonstrated that by preschool, colors and illustrations can be used by children as emblems of gender and consequently, they precipitate approach and avoidance behaviors in line with their gendered essence. Of course, there may be developmental changes in such behavior and future research could address this possibility. Second, children were asked to color all the illustrations. Children who are given free choice in coloring and drawing activities may opt not to color disliked illustrations or ones that offend their gendered sensibilities. The fortuitous finding that some boys chose not to color the fairy underlines the fact that children can provide evidence of their gender stereotypes thorough active avoidance of those objects and illustrations that are perceived as stereotyped for the other gender. This suggests that manipulating choice, both in terms of the illustrations and in terms of the color options that are available, may be a fruitful endeavor. Third, children chose the booklets and colored them in the presence of their peers rather than alone. Children evidence less gender-counterstereotypic toy play in the presence of peers (e.g., Serbin et al. 1979), so peer presence may also impact childrens color choices on this type of coloring activity. In fact, Boyatzis and Albertini (2000) found that children in elementary school often color in gender-segregated groupings and this may well serve to strengthen their gender-stereotyped color use. Moreover, teachers and parents often publicly display childrens art so that even if children color individually, they may self-edit because they anticipate public showings of their work. This is an important possibility to examine in future studies of childrens coloring behavior. Another possible limitation of the study is that children may have known the actual colors associated with the gender-stereotyped figures. Although this possibility cannot be ruled out, the data do not support this interpretation. For instance, although the Winx character typically appears wearing a blue outfit with orange hair, among the girls, her hair was far more likely to be colored blue or purple and her outfit was more likely to be colored red, pink or purple than blue. Moreover, even when a child illegally imported the color orange, it was generally used to color other parts of the figure (e.g., hair in green, shoes and legs in orange). Future research could address the role of prior familiarity with the color of the figures more directly. Widening the scope of the figures provided for children to color and directly examining childrens own perceptions of the gender-stereotyping of colors in relation to their use and avoidance of these colors may also be a fruitful path to pursue.

Conclusions This study has highlighted that young childrens gender provides them with a colored window through which they view the world of figures and illustrations to be colored and of the potential colors that can be used in doing so. This underlines Martins (1993) conclusion that gender-related knowledge, in this case about colors and the types of illustrations that are associated with one gender versus the other, provides the cognitive underpinnings of choices and actions in a wide variety of spheres that do not intuitively appear to be gender-related. In part, then, young childrens behavioral choices represent means by which they selfsocialize into gender roles that both define their gender membership and concomitantly reinforce it.

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