Evidence of immediate activation of gender information from a social role name

Abstract

Two experiments investigated whether the stereotypical gender of a character is encoded immediately into the discourse representation and influences later comprehension. In Experiment 1 people read, and were confused by, a short story in which an incongruity arises at the end if the gender of a character introduced by a social role name has been inferred. In Experiment 2 online measures confirmed that readers were slower to read the final clause of the passage. In addition, a follow-up verification question revealed that these readers did not immediately resolve the inconsistency by inferring the appropriate gender for the role term. These findings provide strong evidence for gender activation at the time that a role name is encoded. The implications of these results for the mental representation of gender information and for constraints on inference during text comprehension are discussed.

Social Consensus Feedback as a Strategy to Overcome Spontaneous Gender Stereotypes

“…As such, the provision of social consensus feedback did not succeed in wholly eradicating the stereotyping effect and adds to previous findings which show that stereotype biases are highly resistant to change (e.g. Oakhill et al, 2005;Reynolds et al, 2006).…”

“…Much evidence currently supports the idea that gender is activated elaboratively once a stereotyped role noun is encountered (e.g. Oakhill et al, 2005;Pyykkönen, Hyönä, & van Gompel, 2010;Reynolds, et al, 2006) and that these gender biases affect language comprehension in a backward manner, while resolving anaphors that refer back to a stereotyped role name (e.g. builder…s/he) e.g.…”

“…Reynolds, Garnham and Oakhill (2006) gave participants a slightly adapted version of the now well known 'surgeon riddle' referenced by Sanford (1985). In this riddle, a father and son are involved in a car accident where the father dies but the son is taken to hospital for an operation.…”

“…Instead, inferences based on stereotypical biases play an important role in building a cognitive representation of gender and, once established, are very difficult to overcome. This can result in processing difficulties when gender-related expectancies clash with explicitly stated gender information.Reynolds, Garnham and Oakhill (2006) gave participants a slightly adapted version of the now well known 'surgeon riddle' referenced by Sanford (1985). In this riddle, a father and son are involved in a car accident where the father dies but the son is taken to hospital for an operation.…”

How gender-expectancy affects the processing of “them”

“…Formally an antecedent is generic wherever the gender of the antecedent is unknown. However, extensive research has shown that antecedents that have a strong gender stereotype might be formally generic but they are not treated as gender-neutral during online language processing (e.g., Esaulova, Reali, & von Stockhausen, 2013;Garnham, Oakhill, & Reynolds, 2002;Kreiner et al, 2008;Oakhill, Garnham, & Reynolds, 2005;Reynolds, Garnham, & Oakhill, 2006;Sturt, 2003). At an intuitive level it follows that there might be a scale of "generic-ness" based on the realworld likelihood, or probability that an antecedent has a specific gender, with low-expectancy antecedents (a cyclist) being treated as highly generic and high-expectancy antecedents (a mechanic) being treated as somewhat generic.…”