How a Language Gender System Creeps into Perception

The influence of a gender system in a language on perception was examined in a cross-cultural study. Participants were from two language groups, one with a gender system, Spanish, and the other with a limited gender system, English. In each language group, participants were from three age groups: 5-7 years old, 8-10 years old, and adult. In one experiment, participants were asked to put a typical male or female name to 20 objects. In another experiment, participants were asked to assign attributes to the objects. Language gender tags influenced the Spanish adults and the 8- to 10-year-olds in their choice of gender assignment, whereas perceived attributes influenced the younger Spanish children and English speakers (both adults and children). It appears that in a language with a grammatical gender system, such as Spanish, the gender system creeps into perception after the gender tags have been acquired.