Logan Burley

"Facial Gender Ambiguity"

Thesis Advisors: Victor Mendoza and Susan Gelman

Abstract (click to expand)

I conducted these studies to examine how individuals perceive gender in the faces of others, particularly looking to see if they ever attribute genders outside of the man-woman binary. In Study 1, participants attributed genders to 10 sets of 20 faces that slowly morphed from man-to-woman or woman-to-man. I found that participants attributed man and woman at equal rates, but a subset of faces were attributed both man and woman at near chance rates. In Study 2, participants completed a forced-choice task attributing “man,” “woman,” or “another gender” to faces rated as “man” and “woman” at near chance levels in Study 1. I found that a majority of participants restrict attributions to solely man or woman, but a subset of the population, those who score highly on gender/sex diversity affirming beliefs, attributes nonbinary gender to others. The results of this study have implications for facial processes – how is gender attuned to specifically within the face – and for gender theory in the U.S. more broadly – the man-woman dichotomy seems to be breaking down within certain contexts.