Abstract
Prior research has shown that certain linguistic styles are stereotypically associated with men or women, but it remains unclear whether readers/listeners can passively make the distinction (Coates, 2015; Lakoff, 1973; Tannen, 1992). The present study evaluated participants’ subconscious perceptions of author gender when provided a written excerpt. To accomplish this, participants completed a deceptive task in which they were prompted to identify the author gender for three excerpts when given a gender- neutral name. The task included two versions of written excerpts across three genres—academic writing, newspaper articles, and romantic fiction. Each version was manipulated to follow either a traditionally masculine or feminine linguistic style, based on established genderlect frameworks (Coates, 2015; Lakoff, 1973; Tannen, 1992). Participants were exposed to only one excerpt version per genre (e.g. either the male or female formatted newspaper excerpt). Additionally, participants provided character trait ratings of the author based on the quality of the text. The results were not significant; however, newspaper excerpts were often attributed to female authors, romantic fiction to male authors, and academic writing was predominantly perceived as male, regardless of formatting.
Advisor
Clayton, Susan
Department
Psychology
Recommended Citation
Yamson, Rachel, "To Slay or Not to Slay: An Investigation into Gender- based Dialectical Differences in Standard American English" (2025). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 11594.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/11594
Disciplines
Linguistics | Psychology | Social Psychology
Publication Date
2025
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2025 Rachel Yamson