Cargando…

Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions

In two studies we disentangled and systematically investigated the impact of subtle facial cues to masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. Participants judged the same unambiguously male and female target persons–either with masculine or feminine facial features...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Walker, Mirella, Wänke, Michaela
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5638207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29023451
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181306
_version_ 1783270706301108224
author Walker, Mirella
Wänke, Michaela
author_facet Walker, Mirella
Wänke, Michaela
author_sort Walker, Mirella
collection PubMed
description In two studies we disentangled and systematically investigated the impact of subtle facial cues to masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. Participants judged the same unambiguously male and female target persons–either with masculine or feminine facial features slightly enhanced–regarding stereotypically masculine (i.e., competence) and feminine (i.e., warmth) personality traits. Results of both studies showed a strong effect of facial masculinity/femininity: Masculine-looking persons were seen as colder and more competent than feminine-looking persons. This effect of facial masculinity/femininity was not only found for typical (i.e., masculine-looking men and feminine-looking women) and atypical (i.e., masculine-looking women and feminine-looking men) category members; it was even found to be more pronounced for atypical than for typical category members. This finding reveals that comparing atypical members to the group prototype results in pronounced effects of facial masculinity/femininity. These contrast effects for atypical members predominate assimilation effects for typical members. Intriguingly, very subtle facial cues to masculinity/femininity strongly guide first impressions and may have more impact than the gender category.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5638207
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2017
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-56382072017-11-03 Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions Walker, Mirella Wänke, Michaela PLoS One Research Article In two studies we disentangled and systematically investigated the impact of subtle facial cues to masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. Participants judged the same unambiguously male and female target persons–either with masculine or feminine facial features slightly enhanced–regarding stereotypically masculine (i.e., competence) and feminine (i.e., warmth) personality traits. Results of both studies showed a strong effect of facial masculinity/femininity: Masculine-looking persons were seen as colder and more competent than feminine-looking persons. This effect of facial masculinity/femininity was not only found for typical (i.e., masculine-looking men and feminine-looking women) and atypical (i.e., masculine-looking women and feminine-looking men) category members; it was even found to be more pronounced for atypical than for typical category members. This finding reveals that comparing atypical members to the group prototype results in pronounced effects of facial masculinity/femininity. These contrast effects for atypical members predominate assimilation effects for typical members. Intriguingly, very subtle facial cues to masculinity/femininity strongly guide first impressions and may have more impact than the gender category. Public Library of Science 2017-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC5638207/ /pubmed/29023451 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181306 Text en © 2017 Walker, Wänke http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Walker, Mirella
Wänke, Michaela
Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
title Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
title_full Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
title_fullStr Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
title_full_unstemmed Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
title_short Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
title_sort caring or daring? exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5638207/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29023451
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0181306
work_keys_str_mv AT walkermirella caringordaringexploringtheimpactoffacialmasculinityfemininityandgendercategoryinformationonfirstimpressions
AT wankemichaela caringordaringexploringtheimpactoffacialmasculinityfemininityandgendercategoryinformationonfirstimpressions