Gothic identity and emotion-related personality traits: the social representation of woman through popular dolls

Gothic Identity Pattern (GIP) derives from characters of Ghotic Novel (e.g., ghost, vampire, zombie, the psychopath, femme fatal), and gives shape to current youth look, fashion, and lifestyles, defining specific subcultures (e.g., “Heavy Metal” and “Goth”). The GIP has been neglected by academic psychology, while it was clearly faced in Folk Psychology that linked it to psychopathy, suicide, self-harm and substance use. The aim of this study was to analyze social representations of GIP, referring to popular dolls which are wide distributed on the market that are sharply Gothic (i.e., Monster High by Mattel), compared with other sharply classic dolls (i.e., Barbie by Mattel). 91 university students (56 girls, M age = 23.30 years, SD = 1.96 years) were shown the two dolls, then they were asked to attribute them different personality traits (i.e., callous-unemotional traits and BIS/BAS scales). Results showed that Monster High was perceived by girls as having higher levels of unemotional traits compared to Barbie; conversely, Barbie was judged as higher in drive and reward responsiveness by the full sample, and with higher levels of fun seeking by females. These evidences indicate that GIP is a distinct element in children’s dolls, both attractive and culturally acceptable. The results also indicated that GIP - at least the one that refers to female - lacks of aggressive correlates and behavioral activation attitudes, whilst it is characterized by unemotional traits.