Does Culture Moderate the Relationship Between Sexual Orientation and Gender-Related Personality Traits?

Abstract

Do cultural factors moderate the relationship between sexual orientation and gender-related personality traits? To answer this question, the authors assessed gender-related traits in 90 gay men, 82 lesbians, 71 heterosexual men, and 95 heterosexual women from three cultural groups: Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and White Americans. Among the gender-related traits measured were gender diagnosticity (GD), which assesses maleversus female-typicality of occupational and hobby preferences; self-ascribed masculinity and femininity; masculine instrumentality; and feminine expressiveness. We found strong homosexual-heterosexual differences on GD measures, moderate to strong differences in self-ascribed masculinity and femininity, and weak and inconsistent differences on instrumentality and expressiveness. Participants from traditional, gender-polarized cultures (Asians and Hispanics) tended to show larger heterosexual-homosexual differences in gender-related traits than participants from a nontraditional and gendernonpolarized culture (American Whites).