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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm
Published on: May 15, 2019
Gender label and perceived infant emotionality: a partial replication of a classic study
Faye B Steuer1, Blair C Bode, Kelley A Rada
1Department of Psychology, College of Charleston, 963 Lakeview Drive, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464, USA. steuerf@cofc.edu
Abstract:
In a study often referred to as "classic," Condry and Condry (1976) showed a videotaped infant to participants, telling half of them the infant was a boy and half it was a girl. Participants who thought they were viewing a boy rated the infant's reaction to a jack-in-the-box as anger; those who thought they were viewing a girl rated the reaction as fear. Participants in the present partial replication of the Condrys' study did not rate the infant differently based on the infant's gender label, although there was evidence that participants' own sex affects their perception of an infant's emotionality. Results were discussed in light of inconsistent results among other gender-labeling studies and relevant methodological, historical, and theoretical issues.
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