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Explicit gender stereotypes and sexually polymorphic cognition by gender identity.
Mina Guérin1,2, Fanny Saulnier2,3, Louis Cartier2
1Département de psychologie, Université de Montréal, 90 Av. Vincent-D'Indy, Outremont, Montréal, H2V 2T2, Québec, Canada.
Biology of Sex Differences
|December 31, 2025
Summary
Cognitive performance varies across cisgender men, cisgender women, and transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people, with TNB individuals showing unique strengths. Explicit gender stereotypes did not directly impact cognitive task performance in this diverse sample.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Gender Studies
Background:
- Sexually polymorphic cognition (SPC) traditionally focuses on biological sex differences.
- Growing evidence highlights the influence of socio-cultural and gender-related factors on cognition.
- Previous research indicates explicit gender stereotypes can modulate performance on sexually dimorphic cognitive tasks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between explicit gender stereotypes and SPC in a diverse sample including transgender and nonbinary (TNB) individuals.
- To explore cognitive performance differences across cisgender women, cisgender men, and TNB people.
- To examine the impact of explicit gender stereotype induction on cognitive task performance in a gender-diverse population.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 488 adults (160 cis women, 172 cis men, 156 TNB people).
- Participants completed eight cognitive tasks and psychosocial questionnaires.
- Randomly assigned to a control condition or two stereotype induction conditions (male- or female-stereotyped tasks).
Main Results:
- Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people exhibited distinct cognitive profiles: similar to cis men in spatial tasks, cis women in fine motor tasks, and superior to both in verbal learning.
- Explicit gender stereotypes did not directly influence cognitive performance across the studied groups.
- Observed cognitive differences between groups varied across experimental conditions, indicating inconsistency and lack of robustness.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive diversity extends beyond binary sex differences, necessitating the inclusion of gender-diverse populations in SPC research.
- Cognitive variations are not solely explained by birth-assigned sex, underscoring the role of gender identity.
- Inconsistencies in SPC literature may stem from variations in study protocols and potential experimenter biases.
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