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Abstract:
Introduction: The categorization of dominant facial features, such as sex, is a highly relevant
function for social interaction. It has been found that attributes of the perceiver, such as their
biological sex, influence the perception of sexually dimorphic facial features, with women
showing higher recognition performance for female faces than men. However, evidence on
how aspects closely related to biological sex influence face sex categorization are scarce.
Methods: Using a previously validated set of sex-morphed facial images (morphed from male
to female and vice versa), we aimed to investigate the influence of the participant’s gender role
identification and sexual orientation on face sex categorization, besides their biological sex.
Image ratings, questionnaire data on gender role identification and sexual orientation were
collected from 67 adults (34 females).
Results: Contrary to previous literature, biological sex per se was not significantly associated
with image ratings. However, an influence of participant sex was reflected in connection with
data on sexual orientation and certain attributes of gender role identity: Participants strongly
identifying with male gender attributes and showing strong attraction towards feminine
individuals perceived masculinized female faces and femininized male faces as more male
when compared to participants to whom these characteristics applied less.
Discussion: Considering that our sample predominantly consisted of cisgender and
heterosexual individuals and given the crucial role of sex categorization for social behavior and
interaction, investigation of face sex perception in individuals identifying with a gender
different from their assigned sex (i.e. transgender people) represents an important objective
for further research.
