Gender Perceptions, Gender Conformity, and Health: An Experiment in Question Ordering Effects

• In Event: 40820 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 3: Gender Nonconformity and Institutional Constraints

Abstract

The use of nonbinary gender measures has provided a more nuanced window into understandings of gender health disparities by drawing our attention to the ways perceptions of masculinity and femininity are related to assessments of one’s health. This intertwining of both health and gender perceptions raises the question of how being prompted to think about one’s gender affects how they evaluate their health (and vice versa)? Addressing this question, we use a survey experiment to test if and how the order in which health and nonbinary gender measures are presented effect individual responses to either. We find evidence of a bidirectional relationship, with both reported gender perceptions and wellbeing affected by question order. We also find that people who experience larger gaps between their gender self-conception and how most people see them report worse wellbeing, especially when they were first asked to reflect on their gender. Our results are consistent across two samples of U.S. adults: a nationally representative sample and a targeted sample of gender and sexual minorities.

Authors

• Tagart Cain Sobotka, University of California, Santa Barbara

• Aliya Saperstein, Stanford University