Gender Attitudes

I am collaborating with my doctoral student, Kaitlyn Goldsmith, and a community collaborator, Amanda Miller, on a study of gender attitudes. Researchers have documented that gender identity develops in early childhood (Ruble et al., 2006). Some individuals experience gender dysphoria in which they are unhappy with their assigned gender and would and do choose to live as the other gender (Cohen-Kettenis, 2005). However, researchers have not examined whether individuals who do not experience gender dysphoria (i.e., cisgender individuals) have any interest in having the experience of being the other gender. The goal of this study was to determine: (1) the percentage of cisgender individuals who would choose to experience being the other gender for varied periods of time; (2) the reasons behind these decisions; and, (3) factors (e.g., reported gender identity, self-esteem, personality traits, sexist attitudes, and homophobic attitudes) associated with these decisions. We are currently preparing two manuscripts based on these data.

Here's a Recent Presentation Based on This Work

Byers, E. S., Goldsmith, K. M., & Miller, A. (2015, October). If given the choice, would you choose to be a man or a woman? Paper presented at the meeting of the Canadian Sex Research Forum, Kelowna, B.C.