Tough and tender: How touch affects sex categorization
By neurophilosophy on March 2, 2011.
LOOK at the photograph on the right. Does it show the face of a man or a woman? There's no right answer - the photo has been manipulated to look sexually ambiguous and can be perceived as either. But according to a recent study published in the journal Psychological Science, the sense of touch can influence how you perceive and categorize the face.
Last year a team of European psychologists found that bodily movements alter the recollection of emotional memories, and an American group showed that the sense of touch influences social judgements and decisions. The new study adds to the growing body of evidence for embodied cognition, which refers to the way in which our thought processes are grounded in the body and the sensations arising from it.
Men and women are believed to differ in certain personality traits. "Toughness" is one dimension that is often used to characterize stereotypical differences between the sexes, with men generally being perceived as "tough", and women as "tender". Because the words tough and tender are also describe different types of touch sensations, Michael Slepian of the Interpersonal Perception and Communication Laboratory at Tufts University and his colleagues decided to test whether sensory experiences of toughness might affect the way we categorize sex-ambiguous faces.
They used a computer program called FaceGen Modeler to create eight realistic faces lying mid-way along the male-female continuum and showed them, in randomized order, to 71 student participants. The students were given a hard or a soft ball to squeeze while viewing the faces, and asked to categorize each face as either male or female. The researchers found that the faces were categorized as male more often by the participants squeezing the hard ball than by those squeezing the soft ball. Conversely, the faces were categorized as female more often by participants squeezing the soft ball.
In a second experiment, another 48 students were given two sheets of blank paper stapled together with a sheet of carbon paper between them. They were shown the same faces on seperate pieces of paper, and asked to write down the sex of each one on the blank sheets. This time, the participants were told either to press down hard with the pen to make two copies of their answers, or to press gently so that the carbon paper could be re-used. Those told to press hard on the paper were more lkely to categorize the faces as male than those who pressed softly, and vice versa.
The new findings provide further evidence that abstract concepts are grounded in sensory metaphors. Just as holding a heavy object makes us perceive an issue as being more important, and physical warmth makes us perceive an interpersonal relationship as also being warm, so does touching something tough or tender influence our mental representation of social categories such as sex.
Bodily motions influence memory and emotions
Touch influences social judgements and decisions
Temperature affects how we perceive relationships
Slepian, M., et al. (2011). Tough and Tender: Embodied Categorization of Gender Psych. Sci. 22: 26-28. [PDF]
It'll be interesting to see what effects cultural perceptions of gender would have on the results. Also, what effect priming with different gender stereotypes would have (eg if women as shrewish, or as sneaky, or as reliable, would affect the touch outcomes).
By stripey_cat (not verified) on 02 Mar 2011 #permalink
Awesome info, refer to the link for more awesome stuff!
By Gohar (not verified) on 02 Mar 2011 #permalink
The photo looks a bit like my partner, who is a gender weirdo. Ha! What a coincidence! Her childhood pictures were extra cute with dark thick eyebrows making her look all serious.
By CS Shelton (not verified) on 08 Mar 2011 #permalink
I wonder if this information would be useful to physicians like me who often have to impart difficult, hard-to-hear information. Would a soft touch on the arm set the stage for a kinder interpretation of my motives/empathy as I speak?
By Julie O'Toole … (not verified) on 09 Mar 2011 #permalink
Neurophilosophy now hosted by The Guardian
AFTER four years here at ScienceBlogs.com, Neurophilosophy is moving to a new home. As of today, it will be hosted by The Guardian. During its time here, the blog has grown from strength to strength. It has received over 2.5 million page views, was featured regularly on the New York Times science…
Human echolocation activates visual parts of the brain
WE all know that bats and dolphins use echolocation to navigate, by producing high frequency bursts of clicks and interpreting the sound waves that bounce off objects in their surroundings. Less well known is that humans can also learn to echolocate. With enough training, people can use this…
A whiff of early brain evolution
Skull of Hadrocodium wui. (Image courtesy of Mark Klinger and Zhe-Xi Luo, Carnegie Museum of Natural History) THE question of how mammals evolved their exceptionally large brains has intrigued researchers for years, and although many ideas have been put forward, none has provided a clear answer.…
Sleepy brain waves predict dream recall
THE patterns of brain waves that occur during sleep can predict the likelihood that dreams will be successfully recalled upon waking up, according to a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience. The research provides the first evidence of a 'signature' pattern of brain activity associated…
US military planned using spy crows to find Osama bin Laden
THE United States military funded research into using networks of 'spy crows' to locate soldiers who are missing in action, and extended the work to see if the birds might be useful in helping them to find Osama bin Laden. The idea may seem far-fetched, but unlike some military research…