Ar. Mcconnell et Rh. Fazio, WOMEN AS MEN AND PEOPLE - EFFECTS OF GENDER-MARKED LANGUAGE, Personality & social psychology bulletin, 22(10), 1996, pp. 1004-1013
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 mas
culine 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-suff
ix occupation titles. Experiment 1 supported these predictions. Moreov
er the effect was stronger for participants who reported more traditio
nal gender role beliefs. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and showe
d that repeated exposure to occupation title suffixes (i.e., priming),
coupled with the knowledge that the occupation title was chosen by th
e target (i.e., implicit personality effects), mediated the findings.
In addition to explaining some of the cognitive underpinnings of sexis
t language, these results speak to conditions when priming will influe
nce social perception.