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...
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doaj-1d296ba461bb482aa72ba0e4d123ec0c2020-11-24T21:34:27ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032017-01-011210e018130610.1371/journal.pone.0181306Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions.Mirella WalkerMichaela WänkeIn 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.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5638207?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Mirella Walker Michaela Wänke |
spellingShingle |
Mirella Walker Michaela Wänke Caring or daring? Exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Mirella Walker Michaela Wänke |
author_sort |
Mirella Walker |
title |
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_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_sort |
caring or daring? exploring the impact of facial masculinity/femininity and gender category information on first impressions. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2017-01-01 |
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. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5638207?pdf=render |
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