ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how people think about or treat others on the basis of whether the person being thought about or being acted toward is a male or a female. Considerable research has been conducted over the years on how people of both sexes think of males and females, particularly regarding differences in behavior. When gender differences are recognized by people, they are often referred to as "sex stereotypes". A relatively small group of studies have investigated people's accepting or approving attitudes toward others based on the gender of the other person. According to the available research, adults generally have more approving attitudes toward the social interactions they have with school age girls than with school age boys, or there are no significant gender differences in people's desirability ratings. Several studies have explored gender differences in facial attractiveness, including the types of features that males or females possess that elicit increased or decreased attractiveness assessments.
