Priming stereotypes through gender-sensitive language in journalistic texts

Cirksena, Frederieke und Leiner, Dominik J. (2022): Priming stereotypes through gender-sensitive language in journalistic texts. In: Studies in Communication and Media, Bd. 11, Nr. 2: S. 240-277

Abstract

Over the past decade, gender-sensitive language has become increasingly accepted and widespread in Germany. Wording that includes women when mentioning social groups increases recipients' cognitive representation of women. However, there has been little re-search on whether gender-sensitive wording has unintended side effects: The constant em-phasis on gender might reinforce gender discrimination in thinking. In two survey experi-ments, we investigated whether such an effect exists. We chose a sufficiently large sample (N = 2,066) to detect even a weak effect. Nevertheless, we found no evidence of the outlined side effects in a liberal and academically inclined sample. On the contrary, the findings sug-gest that gender-sensitive language has become linguistic normality, at least in the milieu surveyed.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Sozialwissenschaften > Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung (IfKW)
• Themengebiete: 000 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke > 070 Publizistische Medien, Journalismus, Verlagswesen
• Sprache: Englisch