The College of Education tested and researched social desirability bias in kids through using food and snacks as a testing variable in a new study. The study concluded that gender stereotypes related to social desirability were found within boys rather than girls.
Social desirability bias is the psychological phenomenon that people, and kids, will change their behaviors to be more socially acceptable when they think they are being observed or evaluated by others.
The College of Education decided to conduct this research study to test the social desirability bias in girls and boys between the ages of eight to 10 by using foods that are typically desirable and not desirable to children.
Evergreen Associate Professor of the College of Education Nichole Kelly said that the College of Education has frequently tested kids’ eating habits in their lab, so they were better prepared on what to do and how to operate the study.
“Between 11:30 and noon, we set up a big lunch meal for them, and it’s about 5,000 calories worth of food,” Kelly said. “It includes lots of things that, in past research, kids have said they’ve mostly liked these types of food items.”
The foods had a good variation of macronutrients and calories, according to Kelly, and the researchers would determine how much food was eaten by weighing the food before it was eaten and after.
The researchers determined the social differences with gender by a survey asking the children a series of questions to test their social desirability.
“[Social desirability] is when people think they’re being observed or evaluated, they change their behavior to be more socially acceptable,” Kelly said. “So [the kids] do more things that they think will avoid them being negatively judged or promote positive behavior.”
According to Kelly, the survey consisted of “yes” or “no” answers to questions like, “I always listen to what my parents say.”
“We know that kids do not always listen to what their parents say,” Kelly said. “But if a kid says ‘Yes, I always do,’ then they are acting in more socially desirable ways.”
The College of Education’s findings concluded that gender stereotypes related to social desirability were found more within boys compared to girls.
According to Kelly, the way that the researchers tested this social desirability theory through food is with the correspondence of the boys’ answers to questions, and how much fruit and vegetables they ate.
“The more times the boys specifically said yes to those questions and the more socially desirable they were acting, the less fruits and vegetables they ate,” Kelly said. “And this was not found in girls.”
According to Kelly, she and the researchers explored to find links between boys acting socially desirable and not eating fruits and vegetables, and they found two studies that proved their research.
“One was that in qualitative research with interviews, several cases were found with boys being bullied for bringing fruits and vegetables, salads and things like that to school,” Kelly said. “And this fear of being made fun of was really prominent in the boys.”
The researchers concluded that the social desirability bias in their study was partially related to the fear of being bullied, according to Kelly.
“We found this other study that said that boys as young as four years old more quickly link fruits and vegetables as ‘girl food’ implicitly,” Kelly said. “So they’re not even aware of this; they just linked together this idea that fruits and vegetables were a girl thing.”
According to Kelly, she and the researchers began contemplating if the boys felt that they would be seen as “girly” and if this stereotype stopped the boys from eating fruits and vegetables under their observation.

Evergreen Associate Professor of the College of Education Elizabeth Budd said in an email to the Daily Emerald that the research and findings of the study will be useful for families and their kids’ eating habits.
“I think the research can be helpful to families,” Budd said in the email. “It can raise caregivers’ awareness regarding gender biases that may be impacting their kids’ eating habits.”
Families can use the research study to exhibit role-model behavior for their children, according to Budd.
“I also think caregivers can reflect on what they communicate to their kids through their own role modeling,” Budd said in an email. “Caregivers could ask their kids if they’ve ever heard someone say that fruits and vegetables are girly and collaboratively unpack what is meant by that stereotype and how silly it is.” 
Budd said healthy dialogue about eating habits with kids would steer them in the right direction and avoid these gender biases.
The research by the College of Education was funded with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, and the College is working to get another grant to further research on these findings, according to Kelly.
“We’re working on a grant right now to see if these biases and stereotypes are a real thing and do they actually predict eating behavior,” Kelly said. “Because if so, that’s a big problem that boys aren’t eating fruits and vegetables because they think, ‘it’s a girl thing.’”