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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Main Authors: Mirella Walker, Michaela Wänke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2017-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC5638207?pdf=render
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spelling 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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