{"title":"Reminding May Not Be Enough: Overcoming the Male Dominance of the Generic Masculine","authors":"Patrick Rothermund, Fritz Strack","doi":"10.1177/0261927x241237739","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In gender-marked languages, masculine and feminine grammatical forms are distinct, with the masculine form also used for gender-mixed groups (generic masculine). Previous research indicates that the generic masculine elicits male-biased representations. Psychologically, this may be due to a misunderstanding of the communicative intention, an automatic activation of male associations, or both. In two preregistered experiments, we tested whether the male bias is affected by emphasizing the generic intention. Adding contextual information that conveyed a group's gender-mixed composition eliminated the male bias (Study 1). However, the male bias remained robust when continuously reminding participants of the generic intention via a novel grammatical marker (Study 2). These results suggest that the male bias is partly driven by associative processes that are immune against a purely explicit disambiguation of the generic intention.","PeriodicalId":47861,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","volume":"133 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Language and Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x241237739","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In gender-marked languages, masculine and feminine grammatical forms are distinct, with the masculine form also used for gender-mixed groups (generic masculine). Previous research indicates that the generic masculine elicits male-biased representations. Psychologically, this may be due to a misunderstanding of the communicative intention, an automatic activation of male associations, or both. In two preregistered experiments, we tested whether the male bias is affected by emphasizing the generic intention. Adding contextual information that conveyed a group's gender-mixed composition eliminated the male bias (Study 1). However, the male bias remained robust when continuously reminding participants of the generic intention via a novel grammatical marker (Study 2). These results suggest that the male bias is partly driven by associative processes that are immune against a purely explicit disambiguation of the generic intention.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Language and Social Psychology explores the social dimensions of language and the linguistic implications of social life. Articles are drawn from a wide range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, sociology, communication, psychology, education, and anthropology. The journal provides complete and balanced coverage of the latest developments and advances through original, full-length articles, short research notes, and special features as Debates, Courses and Conferences, and Book Reviews.