Kids Trust Wrong Math Answers From Men Over Right From Women

When researchers asked young kids to guess how many dots appeared on a screen, something unexpected happened. Even when a male avatar gave wildly wrong answers and a female avatar got it right, children trusted the man's guess more.

The Rutgers University study tracked 198 children aged 5 to 7 as they played online estimation games. First, kids guessed alone, then they watched male and female avatars make guesses before giving their own answers.

The results surprised even experienced child development researchers. When the male avatar estimated 24 dots for a screen showing just 12, children adjusted their answers toward his incorrect number instead of the female's accurate count.

Even more concerning, this bias stuck around. After kids repeatedly heard wrong information from the male avatar, their estimates stayed skewed even after both avatars disappeared from the game.

Doctoral student Kathleen Cracknell says this goes beyond attitudes about who's smart. "This is the first time that we're seeing gender bias directly influencing how children learn math," she explains. Previous research showed girls as young as 6 associate boys with greater intellect, but this study proves stereotypes actually change how kids process numbers.

The research focused on numerical estimation because it's a foundational skill that predicts long-term academic success. Children develop an intuitive sense of quantity at birth, but connecting visual amounts to symbolic numbers doesn't happen until around age 5.

The Bright Side

Here's where the news gets genuinely hopeful. The study found two powerful protections against this bias.

First, children rarely compare male and female teachers side by side in real classrooms. They typically learn from one teacher at a time, which prevents direct gendered comparisons that trigger stereotypes.

Second, kids are surprisingly good at detecting when someone deliberately misleads them. When misinformation became clearly deceitful in the experiments, trust eroded and the gender bias actually reversed.

Assistant Professor Jenny Wang, who led the research, sees this as an opportunity rather than just a problem. Understanding that children receive information through a gendered lens helps teachers design better learning environments.

The findings matter especially because most early childhood educators and caregivers are women. Knowing about this bias allows adults to actively counteract it through intentional teaching strategies.

Graduate student Julia Hauss emphasizes that awareness is the first step. Teachers who understand these invisible influences can create classrooms where every child's math potential flourishes, regardless of who's teaching or learning.