The Development and Socialization of Brilliance Beliefs and Stereotypes

Women’s underrepresentation persists in certain fields, such as mathematics and music composition. One theory suggests this pattern stems from two beliefs: the idea that success in some fields requires brilliance (i.e., field-specific brilliance beliefs) and the stereotype that exceptional intellectual talent is more characteristic of men than women (i.e., gender brilliance stereotypes). My dissertation investigated both sets of beliefs through a developmental lens. Chapter 1 examined the emergence and consequences of field-specific brilliance beliefs, showing that children in the early elementary school years already associate brilliance with computer science but not biology, and that girls are less interested than boys in science fields described as requiring brilliance. Chapter 2 investigated parents as a potential source of children’s early associations between STEM fields and brilliance. Chapter 3 expanded our theoretical understanding of gender brilliance stereotypes, revealing that children as young as 5 years old consider both gender presentation and gender category when evaluating who is intellectually talented. These findings highlight the early sophistication of children’s beliefs about brilliance and advance our understanding of the processes through which these beliefs are acquired and develop across childhood.