Generic masculine: the brain has to overcome inconsistencies

In two experiments, electrodes attached to the surface of the head of test subjects were used to measure the electrical activity of the brain when reading different sentence combinations. The text passages used were, for example: "The waiters walked through the station. It was obvious that most of the men were in a good mood." Or: "The waiters were walking through the station. It was obvious that most of the women were in a good mood."

Although the word "waiters" is to be understood as a so-called generic personal designation (i.e. persons of any gender are meant), sentence processing is impaired if the second sentence refers to women (instead of men). Such an effect, called "male bias", has already been demonstrated several times in behavioral experiments - also at the University of Kassel. Subjects in these experiments accepted a continuation with the word "men" more frequently (and more quickly) as an adequate continuation of the first sentence than a continuation with the word "women".

The electroencephalography (EEG) studies conducted at the University of Kassel now provide the first evidence of neuronal processing conflicts in a feminine (vs. masculine) reference after the generic masculine. "The results of our studies show that the brain has to react with more processing effort if, after the introduction of a group of people in the generic masculine, the next sentence refers to women rather than men," says Dr. Sarah Glim, a researcher in the Department of General Psychology and first author of the two neuroscientific studies. "The EEG data collected allows us to precisely identify the relevant processing phases. The brain already has to overcome inconsistencies at the level of visual perception (study 1) and again during the actual linguistic processing (study 2) of the word 'women'."

In a behavioural experiment, a currently frequently used alternative form, which is realized in spoken language with a glottal stop before the "innen" (e.g. "Kellner*innen"), was also examined. With the glottal stop form, test subjects accepted a continuation with the word "women" in the second sentence more frequently (and more quickly) than a continuation with the word "men". Whether this so-called "female bias" in the glottal stop form is due to more difficult neuronal processing of the word "men" (vs. "women") is as yet unknown and is therefore to be investigated as part of a research project currently being applied for.

"We are not making any recommendations regarding the use of certain forms of language," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Ralf Rummer, Head of the Department of General Psychology and co-author of the studies. "Our task is to provide society - which includes every single person, but also politicians or the Spelling Council - with information on the basis of which scientifically informed decisions can be made. Setting rules of conduct is not part of our remit."

Neuroscientific studies:
(Study 1) Glim, S., Körner, A., Härtl, H., & Rummer, R. (2023). Early ERP indices of gender-biased processing elicited by generic masculine role nouns and the feminine-masculine pair form. Brain and Language, 242, 105290. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105290

(Study 2) Glim, S., Körner, A., & Rummer, R. (2023). Generic masculine role nouns interfere with the neural processing of female referents: Evidence from the P600. PsyArXiv. https://doi. org/10.31234/osf.io/6bkxd

Behavioral experiments:
Körner, A., Abraham, B., Rummer, R., & Strack, F. (2022). Gender representations elicited by the gender star form. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 41(5), 553-571. https://doi. org/10.1177/0261927X221080181

Körner, A., Glim, S., & Rummer, R. (2022). Examining the glottal stop as a marker of gender-inclusive language in German. PsyArXiv. https://doi. org/10.31234/osf.io/fr74p

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Ralf Rummer
Institute of Psychology, Department of General Psychology
Phone:0561 - 804 3592
Email: rummer[at]uni-kassel[dot]de

Dr. Sarah Glim
Institute of Psychology, Department of General Psychology
Phone: 0561 - 804 3578
Email: sarah.glim[at]uni-kassel[dot]de