Factors Influencing Cisgender Individuals’ Interest in Experiencing Being the Other Sex

Factors Influencing Cisgender Individuals’ Interest in Experiencing Being the Other Sex. E. Sandra Byers, Kaitlyn M. Goldsmith, Amanda Miller. Gender Issues, September 2019, Volume 36, Issue 3, pp 236–252. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12147-018-9219-z

Abstract: In this study we asked people about their hypothetical interest in experiencing being the other sex as a possible means to capture their implicit gender-related attitudes and assumptions. As such, we sought to identify the extent to which gender self-confidence, openness to experience, and conservative attitudes are associated with hypothetically having this experience permanently (i.e., through reincarnation) and temporarily (i.e., for 1 week). Participants were 208 cisgender individuals (107 men, 101 women) who completed an on-line survey. A logistic regression analysis demonstrated that individuals higher in gender self-confidence were less likely to choose to be reincarnated as the other sex. A multiple regression analysis demonstrated that individuals who were older, more religious, had more negative attitudes towards gay men and lesbians, and high higher gender self-confidence were less likely to choose to experience being the other sex for a week. Gender identity, age, religiosity, and openness were not related to interest in being the other sex permanently or temporarily. These results demonstrate the potential utility of this approach for assessing implicit gender-related attitudes. They are discussed in terms of the multiple factors associated with these attitudes.

Keywords: Gender Cisgender Gender self-confidence Implicit gender attitudes Openness to experience


Discussion

The goal of the current study was to identify factors associated with cisgender individuals’ choices regarding hypothetically experiencing being the other sex permanently (i.e., through reincarnation) and/or temporarily (i.e., for 1 week) because this may represent a novel way to assess implicit gender-related attitudes. We found that
participants’ identifcation with their own gender (i.e., gender self-confidence) and
conservatism were associated with these decisions whereas their openness to experience and whether they identifed as male or female were not. The fnding that individuals’ attitudes toward having a temporary experience as the other sex and permanently becoming the other sex shared only about 18% of their variance suggests that
these two choices are related but distinct. As such, the extent to which individuals
are generally liberal or conservative may have more infuence on their choice about
having a temporary than having a permanent experience of being the other sex.

Gender Self‑Confidence and Openness to Experience

Gender self-confidence refers to the extent to which individuals identify with their
own gender and see themselves as closely adhering to their own ideals [27, 29, 30].
We found that both men and women with higher gender self-confidence were less
likely to choose to experience being the other sex either temporarily or permanently.
In contrast, participants who chose to be reincarnated as the other sex were variable in their gender self-confidence (that is, much fewer were classifed correctly
from their gender self-confidence scores). Furthermore, gender self-confidence
shared only about 12% of its variance with the two outcome variables. This pattern of results falls in line with the reasons individuals give for why they would
choose to hypothetically experience being the other sex or remain the same sex in
our qualitative research [6]. That is, we found that some but not all individuals who
would choose to remain the same sex gave reasons that refected high gender selfconfidence whereas few individuals who chose to experience being the other sex
gave reasons that refected low gender self-confidence. One explanation for these
fndings is that people high in gender self-confidence hold an essentialist view of
gender. If so, these individuals likely feel that, by becoming the other sex, they
would have to give up their valued gender-related characteristics. Similarly, Thomas
and Blakemore [58] found that people expect that traits related to masculinity and
feminity displayed in childhood would continue into adulthood. It would be interesting to assess directly which characteristics individuals low and high in gender self-confidence feel would or would not change if they became the other sex. However,
it is also possible that individuals high in gender self-confidence were less likely to
choose to experience being the other gender because they are happy with their life as
their current gender and/or are generally resistant to change. However, gender selfconfidence was not signifcantly associated with openness to experience making this
last explanation less likely. Research is needed to establish more fully the extent to
which an individual’s hypothetical gender choice refects implicit attitudes toward
gender, regardless of any other reasons for their choice.
In contrast to past research that has found that the personality trait of openness to
experience is associated with greater nonconformity and gender identity exploration
[26, 65], we did not fnd that openness was associated with choosing to experience
being the other sex either temporarily or permanently. This suggests that our outcome measures assess openness to these particular novel experiences and the extent
to which gender characteristics are a key component of an individual’s identity
rather than a preference for novel experiences in general.

Conservatism

Based on previous research on factors associated with a range of sexual and gender attitudes [12, 30, 47, 54, 65], we hypothesized that individuals who hold more
conservative attitudes (i.e., are inclined to preserve the status quo) generally would
be less interested in experiencing being the other sex. To test this, we assessed four
characteristics associated with attitudinal conservatism: age, religiosity, neosexism,
and homonegativity. The results provide support for our hypothesis. That is, all of
these predictors were associated with one or both of our outcome measures at the
bivariate level. Specifcally, older individuals who were more religious and had more
sexist and homophobic attitudes were signifcantly less willing to experience being
the other sex even temporarily—that is, were more inclined to preserve the status
quo. Similarly, individuals holding more sexist and homonegative attitudes were signifcantly less likely to choose to be reincarnated as the other sex. This suggests that
multiple factors infuence the decision to experience being the other sex for a week.
Generally conservatism and desire to preserve the status quo (refected in all of these
measures) is likely one such factor. However, negative attitudes toward sexual and
gender minorities (i.e., neosexism and homonegativity) also appear to be contributing factors. It may be that individuals who are higher in neosexism and homonegativity hold a more essentialist view of both gender and sexual orientation. As
such, these individuals may assume that changing their sex would also mean changing whether they are attracted to men or women. Heterosexual individuals high in
homonegativity would likely be uncomfortable with the idea of being attracted to
members of their current sex. However, the pattern of unique predictors suggests
that conservatism may be most closely associated with interest in experiencing
being the other sex temporarily. That is, age, religiosity and homonegativity were
all uniquely associated with temporary choice over and above the contribution of
gender self-confidence and these relationships did not difer for the men and women;
none of these variables were associated with permanent choice when we controlled
for gender self-confidence.