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Ambassadors of gender equality? How use of pair forms versus masculines as generics impacts perception of the speaker
Author(s) -
Vervecken Dries,
Hannover Bettina
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.1893
Subject(s) - attribution , perception , german , psychology , context (archaeology) , social psychology , linguistics , paleontology , philosophy , neuroscience , biology
Although the use of gender fair language is strongly promoted in German‐speaking countries, the impact of its use on the way speakers are perceived by others is still unknown. Results of two experimental studies showed that irrespective of their sex, speakers using pair forms rather than generic masculines were perceived more competent by both men and women. Also, they were seen as less sexist by male and female listeners with positive attitudes towards linguistic equality. Findings with respect to the attribution of warmth were more complex: they were not only impacted by language use, but also dependent on speaker's sex and listener's attitude towards linguistic equality. Results are discussed in the context of language and stereotypes. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.