Seeing gender stereotypes: The role of second-order head/facial features

Human faces serve as windows to the intricated realm of social perceptions and interactions. We often rely on stereotypes to quickly frame people by looking at their faces. Focusing on the gender-science stereotype (GSS), we explored the visual weight of face/head features in attributing a specific STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) competence, or lack thereof. The aim is to study basic mechanisms underlying gender stereotypes and the perceptual and cognitive dynamics that come into play when activating or enhancing GSS. Starting from a female head and a male head, a set of female (Exp.1) and a set of male heads (Exp.2) were created by modifying second-order features (i.e., beard, make-up, hair colour and length). A scientific and a literary text were associated to the heads of the two sets; participants’ (N= 90) task was to evaluate the likelihood of the text’s authorship on a 10-point Likert scale based on the head visualized. Results show a negative effect for blonde hair (‘’dumb blonde’’ effect) for both genders, and for heavy make-up for females; a positive effect was found for glasses for both genders, and for beard for males. A Linear Mixed Model Analysis was run to explore the differences between scores for female and male heads. Results show that male heads received significantly higher scores in Science than female ones (p < 0.001), but scores relating to Literature were statistically equal (p=0.82). Overall, results suggest the existence of a gender bias. Results and interactions will be discussed in light of the perceptual elements at play to understand the interplay between cognitive and perceptual factors in activating the GSS.