Keith Campbell, a psychology professor in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, was quoted in Marie Claire about gender reveal parties.
The “It’s A Boy/It’s A Girl” parties have been an economic boon to stationery companies and party supply stores nationwide; a search for “gender reveal” on Etsy yields 46,711 results.
“I’m glad people are having children and celebrating that, because the birth rate is dropping in America,” said Campbell, who is a faculty member in the industrial-organizational program/brain and behavioral sciences program. “And there is something to be said for the communal aspect of sharing something meaningful with friends, which I don’t want to downplay. But there’s self-celebration taking place here as well. We can link this to narcissism and individualism.”