Browsing by Author "Helton, Lydia"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Does This Bumper Sticker Make Me Look Reckless? Stereotypes About Driving Ability Based on Perceived Gender
    (2021-04-28) Helton, Lydia; Drinnon, Joy
    Driving has traditionally been viewed as a masculine activity, producing gender stereotypes in driving. Pravossoudovitch et al. (2015) found males were rated higher in driving skills, but females were rated higher in courtesy, risk avoidance, and law compliance. The present study attempted to analyze implicit stereotypes by examining participants’ perceptions of drivers based on gendered bumper stickers. Two hundred Amazon Mechanical Turk workers viewed a car with masculine, feminine, or neutral bumper stickers and rated the driver on law compliance, courtesy, risk avoidance, and driving skills. We hypothesized that participants would be more likely to perceive drivers with masculine bumper stickers as more reckless than drivers with feminine bumper stickers. We found significant differences between male and female drivers in risk avoidance, t(198) = -2.64, p = .009, with female drivers (M = 20.31, SD = 4.07) rated higher than males (M = 18.84, SD = 3.54). Significant interactions were found between the participants’ gender and the driver’s perceived gender in law compliance (p = .02), risk avoidance (p = .04), and courtesy (p = .05). Perceptions of drivers were also affected by participants’ reported number of traffic violations, suggesting gender stereotypes are not the only factor in risk perceptions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Heroes and Princesses: How Imagination Can Alleviate Poverty
    (2019-12-04) Helton, Lydia; Edmondson, Todd
    Researchers have found that children who are raised in poverty are more likely to be impoverished later in life as a result of educational limits, health implications, or lowered self-esteem. The latter cause could be alleviated by encouraging imagination, a means by which children create hope in visualizing themselves in a life different than their own and believing that their perseverance in life has the power to bring them to a new place, one where they feel safe and capable of great deeds. This research will explore how imagination can facilitate the growth of children’s confidence in their abilities, and findings will discuss avenues of imagination, which include close relationships with strong role models in the community, as well as parents and educators, who can encourage children to pursue activities such as participating in imaginative play or reading fictional stories. If general attitudes toward children living in poverty are transformed to believe that imaginative efforts can alleviate the intergenerational poverty cycle, then outcomes will be improved for children who perceive poverty as impossible to overcome.