Word.ws English Dictionary

Cinderella effect

Cinderella effect noun: the alleged higher incidence of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents.

Noun

Cinderella effect

  1. (evolutionary psychology) The alleged higher incidence of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents.

Origin of Cinderella effect

Named after the mistreated girl from the fairy-tale Cinderella.

Questions about Cinderella effect

What does Cinderella effect mean?
Cinderella effect means the alleged higher incidence of child abuse and mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents.
What part of speech is Cinderella effect?
Cinderella effect is a noun.

Words near Cinderella effect in the dictionary

  1. Cinderella clubs
  2. Cinderella complex
  3. Cinderella complexes
  4. Cinderella dance
  5. Cinderella dances
  6. Cinderella effect
  7. Cinderella liberties
  8. Cinderella liberty
  9. Cinderella sale
  10. Cinderella sales
  11. Cinderella service

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Cinderella effect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Cinderella effect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cinderella_effect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.