美国一组研究人员于日前表示，女孩子在年仅六岁时就会开始认为自己天生就不如男孩子聪明。

They said the "disheartening" results suggested the problem could snowball to affect future careers.

科学家们表示，这一“令人沮丧”的结果可能会像滚雪球一般对未来职业生涯产生巨大影响。

The study on 400 children, in the journal Science, initially¹ found both five-year-old boys and girls thought their own gender² was "brilliant".

这份刊载在《科学》杂志上的研究调查了400名儿童，起初发现5岁的男孩和女孩都认为自己的性别“很棒”。

But then only one year later, gender differences had emerged.

但是仅仅一年之后，性别差异就出现了。

The team from Princeton University, New York University and the University of Illinois said it appeared stereotypes³ were starting to show.

这一来自普林斯顿大学、纽约大学和伊利诺伊大学的团队表示，似乎从那时开始出现了模式化的见解。

Suspected influences include exposure to media, teachers, parents and other children.

可疑的影响来源包括和媒体、教师、父母、以及其他孩子的接触。

The study put sets of five, six and seven-year-olds through different experiments.

这项研究把5、6、7岁的孩子放在不同的实验中。

In one, the children were read a story about someone who is "really, really smart" but it is not clear who the story is about.

在一个试验中，孩子们听到了关于一个“真的、真的很聪明的”人的故事，但是却不知道故事主人公是谁。

They then had to guess the protagonist⁴ from four pictures - two of men and two of women.

然后他们要从4张照片中猜出哪个是主角，待选人包括两个男人和两个女人。

At age five, boys pick men and girls pick women around 75% of the time. But fast-forward a year to age six and boys are still picking men while girls are now slightly more likely to pick men too.

在5岁组，75%的男孩子会选择男人、女孩子会选择女人。但是在比他们大一岁的6岁组，同样数量的男孩子仍然会选择男人，而女孩们也更加倾向于选择男人。

In another scenario⁵, groups of children played a new board game.

在另一场试验中，一群孩子玩了一个新的棋盘游戏。

But for some it was branded as "for children who are really, really smart" and for others it was described as "for children who try really, really hard".

但是研究人员对一部分孩子说，只有那些“真的、真的很聪明的孩子”才能玩；对另一部分孩子说，只有那些“真的、真的很努力的孩子”才能玩。

Six and seven-year old girls were as likely as boys to enjoy the game for those who try, but much less likely to say they enjoy the game for smart children.

对于“努力”组来说，六七岁的女孩和男孩们一样很享受这场游戏，而对于“聪明”组来说就不那么尽兴了。

Prof Andrei, one of the researchers, told the BBC News website: "The message that comes out of these data is that young kids are exposed to the cultural notion that genius is more likely a male than a female quality.

其中一名研究者安德烈教授对BBC表示：“从这些数据中得出的信息是，年幼的孩子们正在接触这一理念--天才更有可能是男人而不是女人。”

"It's disheartening to see these effects emerge so early. When you see them, you realise how much of an uphill battle it's going to be."

“看到这些影响这么早就出现，真的很令人沮丧。当你看到这些的时候，你会意识到这是一场多么艰苦的战斗。”