The past 50 years have witnessed substantial convergence in the activities, occupations, and social roles of men and women, and yet, over the same period, gender norms and stereotypes have remained remarkably stable. What accounts for the persistence of traditional gender norms in the face of sweeping social change? Social psychology has long maintained that gender norms persist because they are enforced in interpersonal interactions. When women display feminine qualities, they receive positive reactions from others, whereas when they display masculine qualities, they receive negative reactions. Conversely, when men display masculine qualities, they receive positive reactions from others, whereas when they display feminine qualities, they receive negative reactions. The goal of this research is to examine these assumptions about how observers react to gender-norm violators by analyzing observers' facial displays. Given that facial displays both reflect emotional experience and signal emotional reactions to those to whom they are directed, it seems likely that they play an important role in the enforcement of social norms, particularly in face-to-face groups. To date, few studies have analyzed this role.
This project is designed to develop and validate a paradigm for studying facial responses to gender-norm violators. It addresses three primary questions: (1) Do people show characteristic facial displays in response to individuals who violate gender norms? (2) Are these expressions related to other indicators of their emotional responses? (3) Are these expressions visible to the naked eye? The research includes three experiments that assess reactions to gender-norm conformists and deviants using three different measures: Facial electromyography (EMG), a noninvasive measure of muscle activation, sensitive enough to detect even activity not visible to the naked eye; the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), a method for coding all visible facial activity; and self-reports of perceptions, emotions, and evaluations of target individuals. The results of these studies will contribute to an understanding of the role of facial displays in the enforcement of gender norms, and, more broadly, of how these norms are perpetuated in social interactions.
