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Asymmetric visual representation of sex from human body shape.
Cognition ( IF 4.011 ) Pub Date : 2020-09-09 , DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104436
Marco Gandolfo 1 , Paul E Downing 1
Affiliation  

We efficiently infer others' states and traits from their appearance, and these inferences powerfully shape our social behaviour. One key trait is sex, which is strongly cued by the appearance of the body. What are the visual representations that link body shape to sex? Previous studies of visual sex judgment tasks find observers have a bias to report “male”, particularly for ambiguous stimuli. This finding implies a representational asymmetry – that for the processes that generate a sex percept, the default output is “male”, and “female” is determined by the presence of additional perceptual evidence. That is, female body shapes are positively coded by reference to a male default shape. This perspective makes a novel prediction in line with Treisman's studies of visual search asymmetries: female body targets should be more readily detected amongst male distractors than vice versa. Across 10 experiments (N = 32 each) we confirmed this prediction and ruled out alternative low-level explanations. The asymmetry was found with profile and frontal body silhouettes, frontal photographs, and schematised icons. Low-level confounds were controlled by balancing silhouette images for size and homogeneity, and by matching physical properties of photographs. The female advantage was nulled for inverted icons, but intact for inverted photographs, suggesting reliance on distinct cues to sex for different body depictions. Together, these findings demonstrate a principle of the perceptual coding that links bodily appearance with a significant social trait: the female body shape is coded as an extension of a male default. We conclude by offering a visual experience account of how these asymmetric representations arise in the first place.



中文翻译:

来自人体形状的性别不对称视觉表示。

我们可以根据他人的状态有效地推断出他们的状态和特质,这些推断有力地影响了我们的社会行为。性的一个关键特征是性,这是身体外观的强烈暗示。将身体形状与性别联系起来的视觉表现是什么?先前对视觉性别判断任务的研究发现,观察者倾向于报告“男性”,尤其是对于模棱两可的刺激。这一发现暗示了代表性的不对称性-对于产生性别感知的过程,默认输出为“男性”,而“女性”则取决于是否存在其他感知证据。即,参照男性默认形状对女性的身体形状进行肯定编码。这种观点根据Treisman对视觉搜索不对称性的研究做出了新颖的预测:在男性分心者中,女性身体目标应该更容易被发现,反之亦然。跨10个实验(N  = 32)我们确认了这一预测,并排除了其他低层解释。发现不对称的原因包括轮廓和额叶的身体轮廓,额叶的照片以及图示图标。通过平衡轮廓图像的大小和均匀性,以及匹配照片的物理特性,可以控制低级混杂。女性优势对于倒置图标无效,但对于倒置照片则完好无损,表明对于不同的身体描绘,性别依赖不同的线索。这些发现共同证明了感知编码的原理,该原理将身体外观与重要的社会特征联系在一起:女性的身体形状被编码为男性默认行为的延伸。我们通过提供视觉体验来说明这些不对称表示是如何首先出现的。

更新日期:2020-09-10
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