Gender Differences in Beliefs About Past Influence on Future Events

A University of California, Davis study finds that young girls and women more frequently explain reactions as being motivated by possible versus certain harm--that is, what might happen versus what will happen.

These findings indicate that young girls and women are more apt to believe that negative past events predict future events in the same and similar situations. According to researchers, this may explain why females have more experiences of anxiety and less tolerance for uncertainty in comparison to males.

In two studies involving 128 people, a researcher investigated 3- to 6-year olds' and adults' belief that future worry and preventative behaviors can be influenced by thinking that a negative past event might or will reoccur in the future when in the same kinds of events.

In the first study, participants listened to six stories featuring characters who experienced negative events and who then, many days in the future, felt worried or changed their behavior when re-encountering the animal or person who had previously caused them harm.

The second study was constructed the same way as the first with the exception that in the re-encounter the animal or person was only similar to the original perpetrator of harm.

Gender differences were apparent in the results of the first and the second study. In both studies, female children and adults more frequently explained characters' behavior and responses to new events as being motivated by possible harm and not by certain harm: their motivation was what might happen versus what will certainly happen.

According to researchers, females have more frequent and intense worries, perceive more risk, have greater intolerance for uncertainty, and experience higher rates of anxiety than males. The study findings may help to explain these differences.

Also in the first study, after listening to the six stories, children and adults were asked to explain the cause of the characters' worry or behavior when the characters re-encounter the animal or person who caused them prior harm. Participants were also asked to then predict how a naive friend would react to an encounter with the same animal or person.

In some variations to the second study, the participants were asked to predict how the central character in the story was likely to respond to an encounter with an animal or person who was only similar to the original perpetrator

There were gender differences in explanations of responses in terms of possible harm versus certain harm, however there were no gender differences in the frequency with which participants provided past-to-present explanations of responses to re-encounter situations: in all cases both females and males explained past events as having a motivational relationship to future events.

Gender differences were apparent in the second study in regard to predicting response to a similar perpetrator. Female children and adults more frequently predicted that characters who encountered "similar perpetrators" would feel worried. Participants explained that the characters would worry because they thought that the new animal or person might cause the same harm as the original one from the past.

Without gender bias, the studies also found that children and adults believe negative past events forecast negative future events in the same or similar situations: negative future events are expected even when the animal or person only resembles the original past perpetrator of harm.

According to the researchers, the ability to explain emotions and behaviors in relation to past events is considered a fundamental part of adult social understanding that is important for processing past trauma, assessing risk, and making decisions.

The findings of the two studies also show that females and males between 3 and 6 years of age increasingly understand that people's worry and behavior can be caused by allowing memories about past negative events to influence their anticipation of the future. Furthermore, they are increasingly aware that a naive friend--another who did not experience or know about the past negative event--would feel differently, have different motivations, and make different decisions in the same situation.

"These results are significant because they reveal that knowledge about the impact of past-to-future thinking on emotions and behaviors develops during the preschool years," according to Kristin Hansen Lagattuta, assistant professor of psychology, a researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, and the author of the study.

The findings, from studies conducted at the University of California, Davis, are published in the September/October 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

"Females explain influence of past on future differently than males," University of California, Davis.