Deliberate Changes to Gendered Body Motion Influence Basic Social Perceptions

• Published in: Social cognition Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 656 - 671
• Main Authors: Lick, David J, Johnson, Kerri L, Gill, Simone V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Guilford Press 01.12.2013
• Subjects: Gait; Gender; Lesbians; Perceptions; Prejudice; Social identity; Social perception; Social psychology
• ISSN: 0278-016X; 1943-2798
• DOI: 10.1521/soco.2013.31.6.656

Perceivers use gendered body motion to categorize others' social identities, and these categorizations carry important consequences ranging from mate selection to prejudice. In light of such consequences, people might be motivated to control others' perceptions of their social identities by altering gendered aspects of their gait. However, it is unclear whether such deliberate body motions are sufficient to alter basic social perceptions. The authors examined sex (Study 1) and sexual orientation categorizations (Study 2) based upon point-light displays of targets who moved with self-paced, accelerated, deliberately gender-typical, and deliberately gender-atypical gaits. Categorization accuracy varied by walk condition and target characteristics, such that lesbian/gay and female targets were systematically miscategorized when altering gendered aspects of their gait. These findings demonstrate that deliberately gendered gaits can indeed alter basic social perceptions, raising new questions about the malleability of gait and the role of targets' motivations in social vision.