Poster 27

North Americans apparently maintain a stereotype of men who like dogs as more masculine and (perhaps) less feminine than men who like dogs (Perrine & Osbourne 1998). It is unclear, however, if men who like dogs are viewed as more masculine and less feminine only by comparison with men who like cats. In this study, we examined 563 undergraduates' gender-related evaluations of two men (one average, one masculine) described as sharing a characteristic. Prior to watching a video of these men play a verbal game, participants were either given no information about the men or told that both men were cat people, dog people, adopted, heterosexual, or gay. After the video, participants rated both men for 24 characteristics, including masculinity and femininity, on a Likert-like scale from 0 (Not x) to 5 (X). The label used had no impact on the average man's masculinity (F (5, 557) = 0.68, ns, M = 2.53) or femininity ratings (F (5, 557) = 1.24, ns, M = 2.05). However, the label influenced the masculine man's ratings (masculinity, F (5, 557) = 4.11, p = 0.0011; femininity, F (5, 557) = 9.09, p < .0001). He was rated less masculine when labeled a cat person (M = 3.47) than when labeled a dog person (M = 4.00), and less masculine when labeled gay (M = 3.07) than when not labeled (M = 3.59), or labeled adopted (M = 3.67), heterosexual (M = 3.70), or a dog person. Only the gay label (M = 2.26) increased the masculine man's femininity compared to other labels (Ms = 0.88-1.32). Apparently, liking cats (or being gay) decreases a masculine man's masculinity by comparison with his liking dogs (but not in general), and has no impact on his femininity or on an average man's masculinity or femininity.

Perrine, R. and Osbourne, H. 1998. Anthrozoös 11(1): 33-40)