Gender Categorization and Stereotypes Beyond the Binary

Gender categorization and stereotyping can lead to discrimination. Researchers have mostly studied cisgender, gender-conforming individuals as the targets when examining these processes. In two factorial survey experiments, we investigated gender categorization and stereotyping of gender-ambiguous targets based on facial features and behavioral information. We manipulated femininity/masculinity/ambiguity of face, expression, and occupation. Participants completed a gender categorization task, and stereotype and attitude measures. The findings indicated that face was most influential for categorization: When face was unambiguously masculine or feminine, participants mostly categorized targets as male or female, respectively. In these cases, expression and occupation had little influence on categorization. When face was ambiguous, this additional information significantly influenced categorization. Nonbinary categorization was more likely for ambiguous faces, and most likely for ambiguous faces combined with ambiguous expression and ambiguous or feminine occupation. Our findings suggest that categorizing gender-ambiguous targets is more complex compared to clearly gendered targets. Primarily relying on face when it appears clearly gendered likely causes categorization errors when encountering TGNC individuals.