How gender and content shape children’s bragging expectations

Here we asked whether 6- to 10-year-olds (N = 182) have expectations regarding who brags (boys vs. girls) and about what (ability vs. resources vs. kindness). With age, children expected boys to brag more than girls. Moreover, children were more likely to expect boys to brag about their ability than their kindness. Finally, the tendency to select a boy as a braggart was more pronounced in male compared to female participants. Taken together, these results, combined with those from several exploratory analyses, suggest that children may not view bragging as a male behavior per se, but instead, as associated with males in certain contexts.