Operationalizing Perceptions of Agent Gender: Foundations and Guidelines

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2603.26682v1
• Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2026 11:15:31 GMT
• Title: Operationalizing Perceptions of Agent Gender: Foundations and Guidelines
• Abstract summary: "Gender" of intelligent agents has emerged as a fundamental topic in studies of people's interactions with computers.<n>Standards in capturing perceptions of agent gender do not exist.<n>One-third of studies manipulated but did not measure agent gender.
• Score: 29.60588276363676
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Abstract: 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.

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