The Influence of Grammatical Gender on Object Conceptualization Is Weak and Might be Language Dependent

Do we make gendered associations with objects whose linguistic labels have a masculine/feminine grammatical gender? This question derives from the neo-Whorfian view that language shapes our conceptualizations of the world. Previous research using various methods has provided mixed answers. Here, we present two experiments where we tested for the gender effect on object cognition using a word association approach where a first group of participants generated adjectives for nouns referring to objects and a second group subsequently rated those adjectives for masculinity/femininity. In Experiment 1, with native French speakers, semantically related object nouns that have opposite grammatical gender (masculine vs. feminine) in French were tested; in Experiment 2, with native French and German speakers, we used translation equivalents that are assigned opposite grammatical gender in the two languages. Importantly, to maximize the odds of detecting a gender effect, if it were to exist, we adopted a “stack the deck” design in favor of the original hypothesis, by presenting nouns with gender markers (i.e., le/la in French; die/der in German) and by testing participants in their native language. Results from both experiments provided support for the absence of gender effect in French, while weak evidence was found for a small gender effect in German. Furthermore, we replicated a previous finding that people ascribe feminine qualities to natural objects and masculine qualities to artificial objects. Our findings add new evidence to the lasting neo-Whorfianist debate on grammatical gender and object cognition.