Language, Cognition and Gender

Front Cover
Alan Garnham, Jane Oakhill, Lisa von Stockhausen, Sabine Sczesny
Frontiers Media SA, Aug 8, 2016 - Science (General)

 Gender inequality remains an issue of high relevance, and controversy, in society. Previous research shows that language contributes to gender inequality in various ways: Gender-related information is transmitted through formal and semantic features of language, such as the grammatical category of gender, through gender-related connotations of role names (e.g., manager, secretary), and through customs of denoting social groups with derogatory vs. neutral names. Both as a formal system and as a means of communication, language passively reflects culture-specific social conditions. In active use it can also be used to express and, potentially, perpetuate those conditions. 


The questions addressed in the contributions to this Frontiers Special Topic include: 
• how languages shape the cognitive representations of gender
• how features of languages correspond with gender equality in different societies
• how language contributes to social behaviour towards the sexes
• how gender equality can be promoted through strategies for gender-fair language use 

These questions are explored both developmentally (across the life span from childhood to old age) and in adults. The contributions present work conducted across a wide range of languages, including some studies that make cross-linguistic comparisons. 

Among the contributors are both cognitive and social psychologists and linguists, all with an excellent research standing. The studies employ a wide range of empirical methods: from surveys to electro-physiology. The papers in the Special Topic present a wide range of complimentary studies, which will make a substantial contribution to understanding in this important area.
 

Contents

Language Cognition and Gender
6
True gender ratios and stereotype rating norms
9
Self SexRole Descriptions Affect the Brains Potentials Associated with Agreement Processing
16
An ERP Study of Reflexive Pronoun Resolution in Written Mandarin Chinese
33
Role descriptions induce gender mismatch effects in eye movements during reading
48
Online processing in schoolage children young and older adults
61
Electrophysiology of subjectverb agreement mediated by speakers gender
74
The Interaction of Morphological and Stereotypical Gender Information in Russian
86
Can GenderFair Language Reduce Gender Stereotyping and Discrimination?
121
Does GenderFair Language Pay Off? The Social Perception of Professions from a CrossLinguistic Perspective
132
Warmhearted businessmen competitive housewives? Effects of genderfair language on adolescents perceptions of occupations
144
Effects of GenderInclusive Language in Media Reports
154
the influence of time on attitudes and behavior
161
how the use of genderfair language affects support for social initiatives in Austria and Poland
173
The Responders Gender Stereotypes Modulate the Strategic DecisionMaking of Proposers Playing the Ultimatum Game
182
Reading is for girls? The negative impact of preschool teachers traditional gender role attitudes on boys reading related motivation and skills
191

Counterstereotypical pictures as a strategy for overcoming spontaneous gender stereotypes
98
Crosslinguistic evidence for gender as a prominence feature
113
Back Cover
202
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