Department of Political Science, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130.
Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2019 Aug 20;116(34):16781-16786. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1908156116. Epub 2019 Aug 5.
To improve gender equality and tolerance toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities, several nations have promoted the use of gender-neutral pronouns and words. Do these linguistic devices actually reduce biases that favor men over women, gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals? The current article explores this question with 3 large-scale experiments in Sweden, which formally incorporated a gender-neutral pronoun into its language alongside established gendered pronouns equivalent to and The evidence shows that compared with masculine pronouns, use of gender-neutral pronouns decreases the mental salience of males. This shift is associated with individuals expressing less bias in favor of traditional gender roles and categories, as reflected in more favorable attitudes toward women and LGBT individuals in public life. Additional analyses reveal similar patterns for feminine pronouns. The influence of both pronouns is more automatic than controlled.
为了提高性别平等和对女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和跨性别（LGBT）群体的包容度，一些国家提倡使用中性性别代词和词汇。这些语言手段是否真的减少了偏爱男性胜过女性、同性恋、双性恋和跨性别者的偏见？本文通过在瑞典进行的 3 项大规模实验探讨了这一问题，瑞典正式在语言中加入了一个中性性别代词，同时保留了与 和 相对应的传统性别代词。研究结果表明，与阳性代词相比，使用中性性别代词会降低男性在心理上的突出度。这种转变与个体对传统性别角色和分类的偏好减少有关，具体表现为对公共生活中的女性和 LGBT 个体的态度更为有利。进一步的分析表明，阴性代词也呈现出类似的模式。这两种代词的影响都是自动的，而非受控制的。
