Women as Men and People: Effects of Gender-Marked Language

This study examined the implications of gender-marked language. It was hypothesized that man-suffix occupation titles (e.g., chairman) would lead perceivers to interpret a social target's personality as more masculine than no-suffix occupation titles (e.g., chair) and that person-suffix occupation titles (e.g., chairperson) would lead perceivers to interpret a social target's personality as less masculine than no-suffix occupation titles. Experiment 1 supported these predictions. Moreover, the effect was stronger for participants who reported more traditional gender role beliefs. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and showed that repeated exposure to occupation title suffixes (i.e., priming), coupled with the knowledge that the occupation title was chosen by the target (i.e., implicit personality effects), mediated the findings. In addition to explaining some of the cognitive underpinnings of sexist language, these results speak to conditions when priming will influence social perception.