Gender stereotypes underlie child custody decisions

Gender stereotypes underlie child custody decisions

Using hypothetical divorce cases we examine the role of gender stereotypes in decisions about child custody. Good mothers received greater custody allocations than did good fathers across a tightly matched pair of vignettes in three culturally distinct samples: Argentina, Brazil, and the United Stat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of social psychology Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 548 - 559
Main Authors: Costa, Luiza Lopes Franco, Esteves, Ana Beatriz Dillon, Kreimer, Roxana, Struchiner, Noel, Hannikainen, Ivar
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Bognor Regis Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-04-2019
Subjects:
Ascription
benevolent sexism
Child custody
Children
Credibility
Decisions
Divorce
Egalitarianism
Fathers
Gender stereotypes
Kindness
Mothers
Stereotypes
Vignettes
warmth
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Summary:Using hypothetical divorce cases we examine the role of gender stereotypes in decisions about child custody. Good mothers received greater custody allocations than did good fathers across a tightly matched pair of vignettes in three culturally distinct samples: Argentina, Brazil, and the United States (Study 1). Two follow‐up studies indicated that the warmth dimension of stereotype content partly accounted for the asymmetry in custody awards: The proportion of maternal‐primary custody was predicted by the tendency to ascribe warmth‐related traits—such as friendliness, generosity, or trustworthiness—to mothers (Study 2) and associate them with female over male nouns (Study 3). We also found that endorsing shared custody mitigated the asymmetry in custody awards documented in our studies. Together, these results highlight the interplay of stereotyped attitudes and egalitarian commitments in the context of judicial decisions about child custody.
Bibliography:Conflict of Interest statement
https://osf.io/utycm/
We certify that we have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial or non‐financial interest in the subject matter discussed in this manuscript.
Data archiving and accessibility statement
All data and materials are available on the Open Science Framework at
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ISSN:0046-2772
1099-0992
DOI:10.1002/ejsp.2523