Gender Differences In Perceiving Internal State: Toward A His-And-Hers Model Of Perceptual Cue Use

Abstract

The perception of physical symptoms and sensations can be based on both internal physiological cues as well as external situational factors. Research on the accuracy with which people can detect physiological indices, as well as on self-reports of symptoms, emotions, and physical exertion suggests that women and men use internal and external cues differently in perceiving and defining bodily states. The purpose of this chapter is to explore this gender difference in cue use. The chapter reviews several studies from the interoception literature suggesting that men and women use internal versus external cues differently when defining their bodily and feeling states. The chapter discusses other areas of research that show that self-reports of various psychological states correspond more directly with physiological changes in men than in women. The chapter reviews two literatures—namely, spatial navigation and field dependence or independence, suggesting gender differences in cue use when both internal and external cues are available and competing. It explores the reason for the occurrence of these gender effects and points several important implications of our “his-and-hers” model of bodily perception. The chapter reviews possible mechanisms driving the gender difference in attention to and skill at incorporating internal and external cues in judging bodily state, addressing both differential attention to and use of external social cues to the behavioral consequences of women's lower status in our society. The chapter presents one particular biological explanation, differences in brain hemispheric lateralization between men and women, and the implications for this on their differential attention to and skill at incorporating internal and external cues in determining bodily state. The idea that socialization around the body and bodily learning experiences shape the way the genders attend to and employ internal and external cues in determining the way their bodies feel have also been addressed.