Tactility and Sexual Symbolism

Abstract

Based upon Freud's view of sexual symbolism, a number of investigators have shown the relationship of form to sex symbols. In previous studies, rectilinearity of line has been associated with masculine characteristics and curvilinearity has been associated with feminine qualities. The present study' utilized the dimension of tactual quality combined with form. Four stimulus objects were constructed to embody compressibility and form: rwo were made of wood, one spherical and one straight; two other objeccs, equal in size and shape to the first two, were made of rubber. Due to the nature of the materials used, the weight varied. The surfaces of all objects were comparably smooth. Each of 30 college students reached into a black, square, curtained box into which the objects were placed individually, in rotated order. After feeling (i.e., tactually examining) each object, Ss rated that object on each of 20 polar adjective scales. The items were based upon a scale of masculinity-femininity developed by Reece ( 1958) ' in which qualities associated with masculinity are paired with qualities associated with femininity in the semantic differential form (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957). The obtained means were evaluated by the analysis of variance method which gave a highly significant F for the compressibility variable (F = 24.1, p < .001), clearly showing the importance of the hard-soft dimension for the concepts of masculinity and femininity in a tactual condition. The effect of form was obscured by the inability to control for weight of the objeccs and the failure to control for the flexibility of the rectilinear rubber stimulus. No significant interaction effects were found.