Sex Discrimination: 2D Hand Representations Suggest Pan-Stimulus Effects

Whether buying fruit or negotiating a peace deal, the sexes of the people involved affect the style of their interactions with each other. Indeed, even such an “objective” act as measuring blood pressure has been found to be influenced by an interaction between patient and observer sex (Millar & Accioly, 1996). As such, understanding the perceptual and neural correlates of the ability is important. Here we tested observer sensitivity to sex cues using a new partial body stimulus set: Static two-dimensional representations of human hands. Our data show that whilst availability of cues including absolute size, colour and texture enhances discrimination, those cues are not required for reliable performance on the task. Moreover, patterns of sensitivity arising in relation to hand stimuli show marked similarities with those associated with other stimulus sets—suggesting the existence of pan-stimulus effects. Implications of those findings for models of the perceptual and neural correlates of sex discrimination are discussed.