Research has suggested that women, unlike men, do not experience increased anxiety in response to gender stereotypicality threats. That research, however, has not considered the domain of gender stereotypes in which women might be most invested: physical appearance. The present work examines US cisgender women's responses to (bogus) feedback about the femininity of their appearance, which allegedly came from an algorithmic analysis of a photograph or video of their face. Across four experiments (N = 2494), women experienced more anxiety (Studies 1a, 1c, and 2) and lower self-esteem (Studies 1c and 2) in response to feedback indicating that their appearance was less feminine than average (i.e., threats) than feedback indicating that their appearance was more feminine than average (i.e., affirmations). Feedback on the femininity of women's appearance, but not personality (Study 2), had an effect on anxiety and self-esteem even when physical attractiveness was affirmed (in the case of anxiety; Study 1a) and when controlling for self-perceived physical attractiveness (in the case of anxiety and self-esteem; Studies 1a, 1c, and 2). Cisgender men, unlike women, experienced increased anxiety—but not reduced self-esteem—in response to masculinity threats across the domains of appearance and personality, though this effect was stronger for appearance (Study 2). A discrepancy between the bogus feedback one received and beliefs about oneself mediated the effects of feedback on anxiety and self-esteem, for women, and on anxiety, for men (Study 2). These results highlight the need to center physical appearance in research on gender stereotyping and its consequences.

研究表明，与男性不同，女性不会因为性别刻板印象的威胁而感到焦虑增加。然而，这项研究并没有考虑到女性可能最投入的性别刻板印象领域：外表。目前的工作研究了美国顺性别女性对其外表女性气质的（虚假）反馈的反应，据称这些反馈来自对她们面部照片或视频的算法分析。在四项实验中（N  = 2494），女性在收到反馈表明她们的外表不如平均水平女性化（即威胁）而不是表明他们的外表比平均水平更女性化的反馈（即肯定）。即使在肯定身体吸引力（在焦虑的情况下；研究 1a）并且控制自我感知的身体吸引力时，对女性外表而非个性的女性​​气质反馈（研究 2）也会对焦虑和自尊产生影响。 （在焦虑和自尊的情况下；研究 1a、1c 和 2）。与女性不同，顺性别男性在面对外貌和个性领域的男性气质威胁时，会感到焦虑增加，但自尊心并未降低，尽管这种影响对于外貌而言更为强烈（研究 2）。收到的虚假反馈与自我信念之间的差异介导了反馈对女性焦虑和自尊以及男性焦虑的影响（研究 2）。这些结果凸显了在性别刻板印象及其后果的研究中以外貌为中心的必要性。