Female Targets Research Articles

The Effect of Simulated Interaural Frequency Mismatch on Speech Understanding and Spatial Release From Masking.

The binaural-hearing system interaurally compares inputs, which underlies the ability to localize sound sources and to better understand speech in complex acoustic environments. Cochlear implants (CIs) are provided in both ears to increase binaural-hearing benefits; however, bilateral CI users continue to struggle with understanding speech in the presence of interfering sounds and do not achieve the same level of spatial release from masking (SRM) as normal-hearing listeners. One reason for diminished SRM in CI users could be that the electrode arrays are inserted at different depths in each ear, which would cause an interaural frequency mismatch. Because interaural frequency mismatch diminishes the salience of interaural differences for relatively simple stimuli, it may also diminish binaural benefits for spectral-temporally complex stimuli like speech. This study evaluated the effect of simulated frequency-to-place mismatch on speech understanding and SRM. Eleven normal-hearing listeners were tested on a speech understanding task. There was a female target talker who spoke five-word sentences from a closed set of words. There were two interfering male talkers who spoke unrelated sentences. Nonindividualized head-related transfer functions were used to simulate a virtual auditory space. The target was presented from the front (0°), and the interfering speech was either presented from the front (colocated) or from 90° to the right (spatially separated). Stimuli were then processed by an eight-channel vocoder with tonal carriers to simulate aspects of listening through a CI. Frequency-to-place mismatch ("shift") was introduced by increasing the center frequency of the synthesis filters compared with the corresponding analysis filters. Speech understanding was measured for different shifts (0, 3, 4.5, and 6 mm) and target-to-masker ratios (TMRs: +10 to -10 dB). SRM was calculated as the difference in the percentage of correct words for the colocated and separated conditions. Two types of shifts were tested: (1) bilateral shifts that had the same frequency-to-place mismatch in both ears, but no interaural frequency mismatch, and (2) unilateral shifts that produced an interaural frequency mismatch. For the bilateral shift conditions, speech understanding decreased with increasing shift and with decreasing TMR, for both colocated and separate conditions. There was, however, no interaction between shift and spatial configuration; in other words, SRM was not affected by shift. For the unilateral shift conditions, speech understanding decreased with increasing interaural mismatch and with decreasing TMR for both the colocated and spatially separated conditions. Critically, there was a significant interaction between the amount of shift and spatial configuration; in other words, SRM decreased for increasing interaural mismatch. A frequency-to-place mismatch in one or both ears resulted in decreased speech understanding. SRM, however, was only affected in conditions with unilateral shifts and interaural frequency mismatch. Therefore, matching frequency information between the ears provides listeners with larger binaural-hearing benefits, for example, improved speech understanding in the presence of interfering talkers. A clinical procedure to reduce interaural frequency mismatch when programming bilateral CIs may improve benefits in speech segregation that are due to binaural-hearing abilities.

Gender Nonconformity Is Perceived Differently for Cisgender and Transgender Targets

The present research examined the role gender non-conformity plays in attitudes toward transgender people. Study 1 with 232 U.S college students focused on attitudes toward female targets; Study 2 with 217 U.S. college students focused on male targets; and Study 3 with 462 mTurk workers directly compared attitudes toward female and male targets. In all three studies, participants read a vignette depicting either a transgender or cisgender target who presents as either gender conforming or gender nonconforming. In all three studies, we found that gender nonconforming targets and transgender targets were perceived as more threatening to the distinction between men and women, and in two of the studies, we found that gender conforming transgender targets were more threatening than conforming cisgender targets. We also found that anti-transgender prejudice, traditional gender role beliefs (Studies 1 and 2), and biological gender essentialism (Study 3) moderated these effects. Transgender targets who conform to the traditional binary gender role associated with their gender expression are perceived as transgressing distinct binary gender boundaries, which may be threatening because “passing” transgender individuals are harder to detect as transgressors and because their “passing” challenges the belief that gender is biologically essential and immutable. Furthermore, as anti-transgender prejudice, traditional gender role beliefs, and gender essentialist beliefs increase, liking decreased and threat increased for transgender and gender nonconforming targets. Working to alter gender essentialist beliefs may be a route to reducing anti-transgender prejudice.

She Can’t Say That … or Can She? Perceptions of Men’s and Women’s Humor Use in the Workplace

Humor is associated with numerous positive outcomes in the workplace (e.g., building cohesiveness, stress reduction), and can be a useful tool for leaders (e.g., softening criticism). Although normative expectations for men’s and women’s behavior might allow both men and women to use communal forms of humor (i.e., affiliative humor), we hypothesized that gender role expectations would cause people to negatively evaluate women who use more agentic forms of humor (i.e., aggressive humor). Moreover, we predicted that this pattern would be more pronounced for women in low-status positions. We tested our hypotheses using two scenario-based studies; our first study included 96 MBA student participants who responded to two hypothetical scenarios, and a second follow up study included 228 undergraduate participants who responded to a third hypothetical scenario. Results from our two studies suggested that participants perceived women humorists more negatively when they used aggressive humor relative to affiliative humor, whereas no such difference was observed when the humorists were men. We also found that high occupational status counteracted this bias, but only when the target of the humor was a woman. In other words, women are at a disadvantage in their use of humor in general (i.e., negative perceptions of women who use aggressive humor), and even in workplace contexts where they have high status (i.e., status only protects them against negative perceptions when they use aggressive humor with female targets).

Mate value at a glance: Facial attractiveness reveals women's waist-to-hip ratio and men's household income

Can people make valid inferences about the person's mate value by a glance of his/her face? Eighty-seven independent coders rated how attractive neutral facial pictures of 297 (152 males) undergraduate students were, after viewing each image for 3 s. The facial attractiveness rating significantly correlated with important sex-specific mate qualities. In case of female targets, facial attractiveness predicted their body shape (waist-to-hip ratio; WHR), whereas among males, it correlated with their household income. The results remained after controlling for the positive affectivity reflected in the facial image. It appears that sex-specific markers of mate value are implicitly ingrained in attractive facial features.

Darling, Get Closer to Me: Spatial Proximity Amplifies Interpersonal Liking.

Does close distance increase liking for a social object? In a preliminary sociogram task, an association between proximity and intimacy was found in drawings of self and others. In three experimental studies, male participants consistently preferred female targets who were (actually or appeared to be) close than far from them. Distance was manipulated through various means-sitting distance (Study 2), presenting two facial images separately to each eye by a stereoscopic device (Study 3), or a video clip (Study 4). This effect was stronger among those with deprived social needs and occurred in part because close (vs. far) targets seemed psychologically more accessible to the perceiver. Our findings offer rare experimental evidence for the empirically challenged propinquity effect and provide new insights on how distance shapes inner experience.

Revisiting Perceiver and Target Gender Effects in Deception Detection

Existing research is inconclusive regarding the influence of perceiver gender and target gender on lie detection. Researchers have offered a number of conclusions regarding gender effects in deception detection (e.g., women are better at lie detection than men, participant and target gender interact in predicting deception detection accuracy, there are no gender effects in deception detection). In the current work, we revisit the question of whether and how gender influences lie detection, employing a large database of controlled stimuli, a large sample size, and the analytical advantages provided by signal detection theory. Participants viewed videos of male and female targets telling truths and lies about interpersonal relationships, and after each video, they rendered a truth or lie judgment. Female targets were easier to “read” (i.e., greater sensitivity) and were called liars more frequently than male targets. No effects of participant gender were observed. This work sheds light on an important issue in the lie detection literature (i.e., does gender matter?), and it identifies important considerations for understanding gender biases and cross-gender social interactions.

Preferences for facially communicated big five personality traits and their relation to self-reported big five personality

A growing body of research has begun to document that core personality traits are associated with specific facial structures, and that individuals are sensitive to these facial cues, as indexed by preferences for faces communicating higher or lower levels of specific traits. We explored how self-reported Big Five personality traits influence preferences for facially-communicated Big Five personality in targets. Participants selected among pairs of faces manipulated to have structures associated with high or low levels of personality traits (e.g., high extraversion versus low extraversion) and completed a Big Five Inventory. Participants demonstrated the strongest preferences for faces communicating high levels of agreeableness and extraversion. Greater self-reported openness was associated with preferences for higher levels of all facially-communicated Big Five Traits. Interestingly, higher neuroticism in women predicted a stronger preference for agreeable male faces, but disagreeable female faces. Higher neuroticism in men was associated with a stronger preference for facially-communicated openness in male targets, but a reduced preference for facially-communicated openness in female targets. Implications of these findings as they relate to personality and social perception are discussed.

Perceived Sexual Orientation of Men and Women with Eating Disorders and Obesity

ABSTRACTThe present study explores the perceived sexual orientation of hypothetical men and women with various eating disorders and obesity. Undergraduates were randomly provided with one vignette describing a male or female with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge-eating disorder, or obesity and were asked about the target’s likely sexual orientation. Significant differences emerged between male and female targets with AN and BN on the forced-choice question, with a greater percentage of participants indicating that the male targets were probably non-heterosexual. On continuous items, participants rated the female targets as significantly more likely to be heterosexual and significantly less likely to be homosexual than male targets. The general public may be more likely to perceive men with eating disorders as gay or bisexual relative to females with eating disorders. Perceived sexual orientation might be an important factor to consider when exploring the potentially unique perspectives of men with eating disorders.

Gender is not simply a matter of black and white, or is it?

Based on research in physical anthropology, we argue that brightness marks the abstract category of gender, with light colours marking the female gender and dark colours marking the male gender. In a set of three experiments, we examine this hypothesis, first in a speeded gender classification experiment with male and female names presented in black and white. As expected, male names in black and female names in white are classified faster than the reverse gender-colour combinations. The second experiment relies on a gender classification task involving the disambiguation of very briefly appearing non-descript stimuli in the form of black and white ‘blobs’. The former are classified predominantly as male and the latter as female names. Finally, the processes driving light and dark object choices for males and females are examined by tracking the number of fixations and their duration in an eye-tracking experiment. The results reveal that when choosing for a male target, participants look longer and make more fixations on dark objects, and the same for light objects when choosing for a female target. The implications of these findings, which repeatedly reveal the same data patterns across experiments with Dutch, Portuguese and Turkish samples for the abstract category of gender, are discussed. The discussion attempts to enlarge the subject beyond mainstream models of embodied grounding.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain’.

The effect of static versus dynamic stimuli on visual processing of sexual cues in androphilic women and gynephilic men.

Models of sexual response posit that attentional processing of sexual cues is requisite for sexual responding. Despite hypothesized similarities in the underlying processes resulting in sexual response, gender differences in sexual arousal patterns are abundant. One such gender difference relates to the stimulus features (e.g. gender cues, sexual activity cues) that elicit a response in men and women. In this study, we examined how stimulus modality (static visual images versus dynamic audiovisual films) and stimulus features (gender, sexual activity and nonsexual contextual cues) influences attentional (i.e. gaze) and elaborative (i.e. self-reported attraction (SRA), self-reported arousal) processing of sexual stimuli. Men's initial and controlled attention was consistently gender-specific (i.e. greater attention towards female targets), and this was not influenced by stimulus modality or the presence of sexual activity cues. By contrast, gender-specificity of women's attention patterns differed as a function of attentional stage, stimulus modality and the features within the stimulus. Degree of specificity was positively predictive of SRA in both genders; however, it was not significantly predictive of self-reported arousal. These findings are discussed in the context of gendered processing of visual sexual information, including a discussion of implications for research designs.

"Keeping in mind the gender stereotype": the role of need for closure in the retrieval-induced forgetting of female managers' qualities.

The present research addressed the question of whether need for closure (NFC; Kruglanski in The psychology of closed mindedness, Psychology Press, New York, 2004) biases individuals' memory of female leaders. Merging research on role congruity theory of leadership (Koenig et al. in Psychol Bull 4:616-642, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023557 ) and research on retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF, Anderson et al. in J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cognit 20:1063-1087, 1994. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.65.5.861 ), we hypothesized and found that high-NFC participants show (1) a higher RIF of dimensions commonly associated with the leadership prototype (agentic/masculine) ascribed to female manager targets, when selectively retrieved dimensions commonly associated with the female prototype (communal/feminine) were ascribed to the same target; and (2) a lessened RIF of female stereotypical dimensions ascribed to female manager targets, when selectively retrieved prototypical leadership dimensions were ascribed to the same target. Overall, the present findings suggest that when faced with women leaders, high NfC enhances the accessibility of gender stereotype-congruent memories and reduces the accessibility of prototypical leadership ones, thus reducing the RIF of communal/feminine memories.

Same-gender distractors are not so easy to reject: ERP evidence of gender categorization

Social categorization appears to be an automatic process that occurs during person perception. Understanding social categorization better is important because mere categorization can lead to stereotype activation and, in turn, to discrimination. In the present study we used a novel approach to examine event-related potentials (ERPs) of gender categorization in the “Who said what?” memory paradigm, thus allowing for a more in-depth understanding of the specific mechanisms underlying identity versus categorization processing. After observing video clips showing a “discussion” among female and male targets, participants were shown individual statements, each accompanied by one of the discussants’ faces. While we measured ERPs, participants had to decide whether or not a given statement had previously been made by the person with the accompanying face. In same-person trials, statements were paired with the correct person, whereas in the distractor trials, either a same-gender or a different-gender distractor was shown. As expected, participants were able to reject different-gender distractors faster than same-gender distractors, and they were more likely to falsely choose yes for a same-gender than for a different-gender distractor. Both findings indicate gender-based categorization. ERPs, analyzed in a 300- to 400-ms time window at occipito-temporal channels, indicated more negative amplitudes for yes responses both for the same person and for same-gender distractors, relative to different-gender distractors. Overall, these results show gender-based categorization even when the task was to assess the identifying information in a gender-neutral context. These findings are interpreted as showing that gender categorization occurs automatically during person perception, but later than race- or age-based categorization.

A Test of the Three-Component Model of Gender-Based Prejudices: Homophobia and Transphobia Are Affected by Raters’ and Targets’ Assigned Sex at Birth

The present study tested a three-component model of homophobia and transphobia that differentiates between general and specifically gender-based social threats that motivate these prejudices. A sample of 187 female and 107 male heterosexual U.S. college undergraduates were randomly assigned to complete survey measures of homophobia and transphobia with either born-female (lesbian and female-to-male transgender, respectively) or born-male (gay man and male-to-female transgender, respectively) targets, as well as measures of religious fundamentalism, right wing authoritarianism, aggression, and ambivalent sexism. The participant by target-gender interaction for transphobia showed that transphobia was particularly high for male participants judging born-male transgender targets. Possibly reflecting a fear of any social non-conformity, religious fundamentalism and right wing authoritarianism were positively correlated with homophobia and transphobia regardless of participant or target gender. Possibly reflecting specific fears among men about threats to male privilege, physical aggression proneness was strongly positively correlated with homophobia and transphobia for men judging a male target. Aggression proneness was also positively correlated with homophobia for women judging a female target. Possibly reflecting specific fears among women about threats to female social roles, benevolent sexism was only positively correlated with transphobia for female but not for male participants, with no target-gender difference. Benevolent sexism was also correlated with homophobia for female participants judging a male target. These findings were largely supportive of the three-component model of gender-based prejudice.

Competitive reputation manipulation: Women strategically transmit social information about romantic rivals

Researchers have suggested that women compete with same-sex peers using indirect social tactics. However, the specific predictors and mechanisms of this form of female intrasexual competition are less well understood. We propose that one mechanism by which women harm rivals' social opportunities is through selectively transmitting reputation-relevant social information. Moreover, we contend that this behavior is designed to undermine the romantic and social appeal of same-sex romantic rivals who are perceived to be threatening. Evidence from five studies suggests that women's dissemination of social information is strategic and reliably predicted by various cues of romantic rival threat: attempts at mate poaching (Study 1), physical attractiveness (Studies 2 and 3), and provocative clothing (Studies 4 and 5). Women strategically harmed and failed to enhance the reputations of other women who threatened their romantic prospects directly (by flirting with their romantic partners) and indirectly (by being attractive or provocatively dressed). Women's dispositional levels of competitiveness also predicted their information transmission: highly competitive women (both generally and in romantic domains specifically) disclosed more reputation-damaging information than did less competitive women. Furthermore, women transmitted reputation-harming information about female targets independent of how much they explicitly liked those targets, suggesting a disconnect between women's intentions and their gossip behavior. Irrespective of the gossiper's intentions, pilot data confirmed that social harm is likely to befall the women targeted by the transmission of reputation-damaging social information.

Experimental evolution with an insect model reveals that male homosexual behaviour occurs due to inaccurate mate choice

The existence of widespread male same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) is puzzling: why does evolution allow costly homosexual activity to exist, when reproductive fitness is primarily achieved through heterosexual matings? Here, we used experimental evolution to understand why SSB occurs in the flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. By varying the adult operational sex ratio across 82–106 generations, we created divergent evolutionary regimes that selected for or against SSB depending upon its function. Male-biased (90:10 M:F) regimes generated strong selection on males from intrasexual competition, and demanded improved ability to locate and identify female mates. By contrast, Female-biased regimes (10:90 M:F) generated weak male–male competition, and relaxed selection on mate-searching abilities in males. If male SSB functions through sexually selected male–male competition, it should be more evident within Male-biased regimes, where reproductive competition is nine times greater, than in the Female-biased regimes. By contrast, if SSB exists due to inaccurate mate choice, it should be reduced in Male-biased regimes, where males experience stronger selection for improved mate finding and discrimination abilities than in the Female-biased regime, where most potential mating targets are female. Following these divergent evolutionary regimes, we measured male engagement in SSB through choice experiments simultaneously presenting female and male mating targets. Males from both regimes showed similar overall levels of mating activity. However, there were significant differences in levels of SSB between the two regimes: males that evolved through male-biased operational sex ratios located, mounted and mated more frequently with the female targets. By contrast, males from female-biased selection histories mated less frequently with females, exhibiting almost random choice between male and female targets in their first mating attempt. Following experimental evolution, we therefore conclude that SSB does not function through sexually selected male–male competition, but instead occurs because males fail to perfectly discriminate females as mates.

Lay (Mis)Perceptions of Sexual Harassment toward Transgender, Lesbian, and Gay Employees

LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer-identified) employees commonly experience sexual harassment at work. The perceptions of lay observers of this harassment, such as their coworkers and managers, likely influence beliefs about appropriate individual and organizational responses to harassment. Thus, we conducted an experiment (n = 279 U.S. college students) to examine (a) whether four motivations (power, prejudice, gender policing, and sexual attraction) were perceived to underlie harassment toward LGT individuals; (b) how these motivations were related to perceived acceptability of the harassment; and (c) and how acceptability was related to recommended responses to the harassment. We found that compared to lesbian, gay, or cisgender heterosexual targets, participants perceived harassment toward transgender targets as less acceptable when they viewed it as more motivated by power and prejudice and less by attraction. Compared to male targets, participants perceived sexual harassment toward female targets as less acceptable when they viewed it as more motivated by prejudice. Finally, perceiving the harassment as less acceptable was associated with recommending that the target report the harassment. These results suggest that harassment targeting men and gay and lesbian employees may be minimized, underlining the need for organizations to protect against employees’ mistreatment and challenge beliefs about sexual harassment motivations and acceptability.

Difficulty with understanding speech in background noise is predicted by broad binaural pitch fusion in bimodal cochlear implant users

Combined use of a cochlear implant (CI) and a contralateral hearing aid has been shown to improve CI users’ speech perception performance in multi-talker environments, presumably due to the use of acoustic temporal fine structure cues for separating one talker from several other talkers. However, there is large variability in this bimodal benefit. In this study, we show that differences in width of binaural pitch fusion, the fusion of dichotically presented tones that evoke different pitches across ears, explain a large part of this variability. Specifically, broad binaural pitch fusion could lead to fusion of multiple voices as one voice, and reduce the ability to use voice pitch differences to separate voices and understand speech in a multi-talker environment. Speech reception thresholds measured using male and female target talkers were compared with binaural pitch fusion results. Overall performance improved with different genders for target and maskers. A strong negative correlation was observed between voice gender benefit and breadth of binaural pitch fusion. These results suggest that sharp binaural pitch fusion is necessary for maximal speech perception in noise when acoustic hearing is available to transmit voice pitch cues. [Work supported by NIH-NIDCD Grant Nos. R01 DC01337 and F32 DC016193.]

Online Sexual Grooming: Exploratory Comparison of Themes Arising From Male Offenders’ Communications with Male Victims Compared to Female Victims

ABSTRACTThe majority of current grooming research makes no distinctions between male and female targets. This study therefore aims to provide an initial attempt to rectify this. Thematic analysis was used to analyze eight transcripts from the Perverted Justice website, revealing five main themes: positivity, emotional connection, self-protection, sexual content, and arranging to meet offline. Unlike O’Connell (2003), themes were not consecutive. While no thematic differences between target genders were found, it was clear that more sexually related words were used toward male targets. It was concluded further investigation of differences between grooming targeted at male victims, and grooming targeted at female victims was warranted.

Identifying vulnerability to violence: the role of psychopathy and gender

PurposeRecent research has suggested that a heightened sensitivity to nonverbal cues may give individuals with psychopathic traits an advantage when selecting potential victims. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of gender on the association between psychopathy and perceptions of vulnerability to violent victimization.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 291 undergraduate students viewed a series of eight videos depicting individual female targets walking down a hallway from behind. Participants rated each target’s vulnerability to violent victimization and provided a justification for each rating. In addition to these ratings, participants completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale.FindingsA series of hierarchical linear regressions revealed gender differences in the association between psychopathy and accuracy. Among male observers, total psychopathy scores, Factor 2 psychopathy scores, and scores on the antisocial behavior facet were positively associated with accuracy in perceiving vulnerability to violent victimization. Conversely, no associations were identified between psychopathy (total, Factors, and facets) and accuracy among female observers. This suggests that the adept ability to accurately perceive nonverbal cues signalling vulnerability is specific to males exhibiting psychopathic traits.Originality/valueThe results of the current study highlight the importance of distinguishing male and female psychopathy in research and practice. Moreover, with an understanding of individual differences in the ability to accurately perceive nonverbal cues associated with vulnerability, we may begin to develop intervention strategies aimed at reducing future incidences of victimization.

The Norwegian Gender Balance Law. A Reform That Failed?

The Norwegian Gender Balance Law (GBL) was proposed in June 14th 2003, made into a law on December 9th 2005, and implemented from January 1st 2006 with a two-year grace period. The law mandates at least 40% board representation for both gender in PLC companies. The government gave two main promises, one that gender equality would increase with the law, the other that companies' financial performance would improve. I review research literature and add descriptive long-term developments on these dimensions. This essay concludes that the promises were not fulfilled, and that the corporate governance consequences that did follow are mostly negative. Companies attain the 40% female director target, but besides this, the law does not bring more female managers or CEOs, and the gender segregated labour market remains segregated. Today, the law applies to about 500 women, half of the number at its maximum. An unintended consequence of the legislation is the mass exodus of companies from the PLC register. I find it difficult to compare results from research on financial performance. Researchers perform before-and-after study, a natural experiment, but the reform has a long gestation period and attrition of companies from the PLC register. I conclude that the law should be repealed. In a wider context the experiment casts doubt as to the usefulness of legislation to promote gender equality in the boardroom and in society at large.