ORCID

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4116-6857

Date of Award

Fall 2025

Language

English

Embargo Period

11-19-2025

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School/Department

Department of Psychology

Program

Psychology (Master's)

First Advisor

Anna Reiman

Committee Members

Cynthia Najdowski

Keywords

masculinity, femininity, gender nonbinary, gender stereotypes

Subject Categories

Psychology | Social Psychology

Abstract

Nonbinary individuals identify outside of the typical gender binary of men and women. Existing research has not investigated how nonbinary people are perceived in terms of masculinity and femininity. We hypothesized that nonbinary individuals would be perceived as less masculine than men and less feminine than women, while also being perceived as overall more feminine than masculine. Participants viewed a researcher-generated social media profile. The primary experimental manipulation involved varying the pronouns listed in the profile biography, denoting a man (he/him), woman (she/her), or nonbinary person (they/them). Participants rated how masculine and feminine they perceived the target person to be, in addition to how much they exhibited traits traditionally associated with men and women. Supporting two of our hypotheses, nonbinary individuals were perceived as less masculine than men and less feminine than women. Contrary to our third hypothesis, nonbinary individuals were perceived as equally masculine and feminine. This research contributes to the overall understanding as to how nonbinary people are evaluated and socially categorized, while also providing insight into how people who are not men are potentially demasculinized.

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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