Stereotyped perceptions of readers: an experimental vignette study with high school students and teachers

In many countries, there are medium to large gender gaps in reading achievement and motivation in favor of female students. Since research does not show substantive gender differences in verbal skills, socio-cognitive factors, such as stereotypes associated with reading, become a plausible explanation for these gender gaps. A vignette study was conducted to test whether high school students and teachers have stereotypical perceptions about boys and girls who like to read. The study used a 2 (target’s gender: boy vs. girl) x 2 (target’s reading enjoyment: low vs. high) factorial design to examine the effect of a character’s gender and reading enjoyment on participants’ judgments about the character’s academic traits, popularity, and gender expression. Participants were 296 high school students and 135 Chilean high school language-teachers in Santiago (Chile). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and follow-up univariate ANOVAs with Bonferroni corrections showed that students hold gender stereotypes about reading because they perceive reading to be more associated with femininity than masculinity. Additionally, both students and teachers perceive characters who like to read as having more academic traits and being less popular than characters who do not enjoy reading. Contrary to expectations, no interaction effects between gender and reading enjoyment were found. These findings provide empirical evidence regarding a relevant topic in education -sources of inequalities in reading achievement. Such results may offer a preliminary basis for identifying general directions for policies or interventions that promote more equitable literacy learning opportunities for male and female high school students.