Gender/Sex Categories and Gendered Cues in People Perception: The Influence of Gender/Sex Ratio and Gendered Appearance on Group Judgments

Previous findings on people perception show that perceivers are attuned to the social categories of group members, which subsequently influences social judgments. An outstanding question is whether perceivers are also attuned to visual cue variability (e.g., gender typicality). In two studies (n = 165), perceivers viewed 12-person ensembles (500 ms) of varying White men-to-women ratios. Importantly, faces of one gender/sex were morphed to appear either more masculine or more feminine. Consistent with prior work, results indicated that judgments varied by the actual gender/sex ratio. In addition, perceivers' judgments varied as a function of manipulated gender cues. Ensembles composed of masculine, compared to feminine White men, were judged to have more men, higher perceived masculinity, and to be more threatening. Complementary results were found for ensembles composed of feminine, compared to masculine White women. These findings highlight the impact of both social categories and visual phenotypic cue variability on people perception.