Operationalizing Perceptions of Agent Gender: Foundations and Guidelines
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arXiv
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| Auteurs principaux: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Publié: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866918413458210816 |
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| author | Seaborn, Katie Steeds, Madeleine Torre, Ilaria De Cet, Martina Winkle, Katie Göransson, Marcus |
| author_facet | Seaborn, Katie Steeds, Madeleine Torre, Ilaria De Cet, Martina Winkle, Katie Göransson, Marcus |
| contents | The "gender" of intelligent agents, virtual characters, social robots, and other agentic machines has emerged as a fundamental topic in studies of people's interactions with computers. Perceptions of agent gender can help explain user attitudes and behaviours -- from preferences to toxicity to stereotyping -- across a variety of systems and contexts of use. Yet, standards in capturing perceptions of agent gender do not exist. A scoping review was conducted to clarify how agent gender has been operationalized -- labelled, defined, and measured -- as a perceptual variable. One-third of studies manipulated but did not measure agent gender. Norms in operationalizations remain obscure, limiting comprehension of results, congruity in measurement, and comparability for meta-analyses. The dominance of the gender binary model and latent anthropocentrism have placed arbitrary limits on knowledge generation and reified the status quo. We contribute a systematically-developed and theory-driven meta-level framework that offers operational clarity and practical guidance for greater rigour and inclusivity. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_26682 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Operationalizing Perceptions of Agent Gender: Foundations and Guidelines Seaborn, Katie Steeds, Madeleine Torre, Ilaria De Cet, Martina Winkle, Katie Göransson, Marcus Human-Computer Interaction Artificial Intelligence Computers and Society The "gender" of intelligent agents, virtual characters, social robots, and other agentic machines has emerged as a fundamental topic in studies of people's interactions with computers. Perceptions of agent gender can help explain user attitudes and behaviours -- from preferences to toxicity to stereotyping -- across a variety of systems and contexts of use. Yet, standards in capturing perceptions of agent gender do not exist. A scoping review was conducted to clarify how agent gender has been operationalized -- labelled, defined, and measured -- as a perceptual variable. One-third of studies manipulated but did not measure agent gender. Norms in operationalizations remain obscure, limiting comprehension of results, congruity in measurement, and comparability for meta-analyses. The dominance of the gender binary model and latent anthropocentrism have placed arbitrary limits on knowledge generation and reified the status quo. We contribute a systematically-developed and theory-driven meta-level framework that offers operational clarity and practical guidance for greater rigour and inclusivity. |
| title | Operationalizing Perceptions of Agent Gender: Foundations and Guidelines |
| topic | Human-Computer Interaction Artificial Intelligence Computers and Society |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26682 |