Asymmetric visual representation of sex from facial appearance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21640481 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marco Gandolfo (0000-0003-1505-3191, Radboud University Nijmegen, corresponding author), Paul E Downing (0000-0002-5046-2858, Bangor University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 585-595 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1069-9384 • E-ISSN: 1531-5320 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3758/s13423-022-02199-6 |
| PMID | 36271178 |
| OpenAlex | W4307030523 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 84 |
We efficiently infer others’ traits from their faces, and these inferences powerfully shape our social behaviour. Here, we investigated how sex is represented in facial appearance. Based on previous findings from sex-judgment tasks, we hypothesized that the perceptual encoding of sex is not balanced but rather polarized: for the processes that generate a sex percept, the default output is “male,” and the representation of female faces extends that of the male, engaging activity over unique detectors that are not activated by male faces. We tested this hypothesis with the logic of Treisman’s studies of visual search asymmetries, predicting that observers should more readily detect the presence of female faces amongst male distractors than vice versa. Across three experiments ( N = 32 each), each using different face stimuli, we confirmed this prediction in response time and sensitivity measures. We apply GIST analyses to the face stimuli to exclude that the search asymmetry is explained by differences in image homogeneity. These findings demonstrate a property of the coding that links facial appearance with a significant social trait: the female face is coded as an extension of a male default. We offer a mechanistic description of perceptual detectors to account for our findings and posit that the origins of this polarized coding scheme are an outcome of biased early developmental experience
Automaticity · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Face perception · Facial expression · Percept · Perception · Trait · Communication · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Face Recognition and Perception · Neuroscience · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
Perceiving People
Bayesian Cognitive Modeling
Is Face Processing Species-Specific During the First Year of Life?
The NimStim set of facial expressions
Effects of sexual dimorphism on facial attractiveness
Visual search and stimulus similarity.
Controlling low-level image properties
A dynamic interactive theory of person construal.
Presentation and validation of the Radboud Faces Database
Adaptation to natural facial categories
Feature analysis in early vision
The functional basis of face evaluation
The Psychophysics Toolbox
Asymmetric visual representation of sex from human body shape
Early Processing of Gendered Facial Cues Predicts the Electoral Success of Female Politicians
Gender Stereotypes and Attitudes Toward Women and Men
Infant categorization of faces
Child and Adult Sensitivity to Gender Information in Patterns of Facial Motion
A boy primed Sue
Caregiving experience and its relation to perceptual narrowing of face gender
On the self-perpetuating nature of stereotypes about women and men
Polarity correspondence
Error management theory
Race and gender on the brain
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |