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A new study suggests that those who spend too much time gazing at a gender specific thing, may perceive an androgynous face to be of the opposite gender. For example, a person who looks at too many products meant for women, like high heels, or dresses, may perceive an androgynous face to be of a male's.

The study by Amir Homayoun Javadi of Technische Universität, Dresden, and his colleagues tell us how the objects surrounding us may influence our perceptions of gender.

The authors of the study have found that when people are shown objects highly associated with one gender, for a short period of time and are then asked to identify the gender of an androgynous face, they are more likely to identify it as being of the gender opposite to that associated with the stimuli, Medical Xpress reported.

There are studies conducted previously which have shown that continuous exposure to certain visual stimuli causes short and long term adaptations with temporary aftereffects due to repeated stimulation of specific pathways in the brain.

For example, when a person stares at a red screen for a long time, and when later he is asked to look at a white screen, he perceives it as green in color (the perceptual opposite of red). The current study is the first one to have demonstrated that such phenomenon is also true for a more abstract feature like gender perception.

According to the authors, the possible explanations for their results is either that common brain regions may be involved in identifying gender-associated objects and identifying the gender of androgynous faces, so the effect is same as the red screen-white screen example above. Or, it may be that a higher cognitive function of 'adapting to gender' may modulate the process of 'assigning gender', whether to an object or an androgynous face, the report said.

"This study highlights how exposure to objects in our environment can affect our perception of gender in everyday life" says Javadi, lead author of the paper.

The study was published Sept. 26 in the open access journal PLOS ONE.