Spatial Skills and Self-Perceived Masculinity: Considering College Major STEM-ness, Directionality, and Gender

The sex-role mediation hypothesis suggests that a masculine self-concept promotes male-typed cognition, including spatial skills. Support for the hypothesis is mixed, limited by small samples and the spatial skills examined, with few studies exploring the role of gendered activities, experiences, and interests (e.g., Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [STEM] college majors). Therefore, in a sample of 339 undergraduate students, a series of regression analyses with bootstrapped-based estimation of indirect effects was used to determine whether self-perceived masculinity was related to three-dimensional (3D) mental rotations, geographical knowledge, identifying the true horizontal, and object location memory via major 'STEM-ness.' Spatial skills and masculinity were consistently positively related, except for object location memory, which is the only spatial skill examined where women, on average, outperform men. Moreover, the link between some spatial skills (3D mental rotations, identifying the true horizontal) and masculinity partially occurred via major STEM-ness. Findings are novel in revealing associations among masculinity, spatial skills, and STEM interests, and are somewhat consistent with the sex-role mediation hypothesis. They also encourage future longitudinal studies to examine whether masculinity predicts or is predicted by spatial skills, and they may have downstream implications for reducing gender disparities in STEM.