Gender, Sex Role Orientation, and Dream Recall Frequency

Abstract

Recently, a large meta-analysis showed that women tend to recall their dreams more often than men. Despite this robust finding, studies focused on explaining the gender difference in dream recall frequency are scarce. The present findings of an online survey indicate that sex role orientation-expressivity/femininity-was related to dream recall frequency but did not fully explain the gender difference in dream recall frequency. Future studies should investigate other variables-in addition to sex role orientation-like verbal memory, recall of emotional experiences, and/or frequency of talking about emotional matters that might play a role in explaining the gender difference in dream recall. © 2010 American Psychological Association.