Characteristics of Social Categorization Based on Variations in Gender and Age

Abstract

Using Garner's selective attention paradigm, we investigated the characteristics of multiple social categorization based on variations in gender and age. The stimuli were presented in the following 3 conditions: In the gender-clue varying situation, gender categorization was elicited; in the age-clue varying situation, age categorization was elicited; and in the orthogonal condition, simultaneous variations in age and gender interfered with the irrelative task. The results showed that simultaneous processing weakened variations in the age and gender subcategories. The processing speed of older persons, which requires more cognitive resources, was slower than that of younger individuals. Additionally, perceivers paid more attention to the age clue of female faces than that of male faces.