Identifying Sex from Handwriting

Abstract

The ability to infer the sex of the writer from cursive handwriting was examined under a range of conditions. In 5 experiments male and female college students were able to perform this task at the 75% accuracy level even with small amounts of material, sometimes only a single letter or a single geometric pattern. On the other hand, age of the writer was just barely discernible from handwriting. It was suggested that sex or gender is present in handwriting in much the same way as it is present in movement of the whole body.