Is “They” a Truly Gender-Neutral Pronoun?

Name

Lara Nassar, University of San FranciscoFollow
Saige Ferko, University of San FranciscoFollow
Megan Schneider, University of San FranciscoFollow
Jordan Mall, University of San FranciscoFollow
Alex Dellar, University of San FranciscoFollow

Major

Psychology

Research Abstract

The English language does not have a widely-used singular gender-neutral pronoun. Although "they" has been proposed to be a singular gender-neutral pronoun, some findings suggest that it carries a male bias, a phenomenon where a pronoun that is intended to be gender-neutral is assumed to reference a man (Lindqvist et al., 2019). Our study aimed to evaluate pronoun use on the perception of gender. We strove to: (1) investigate how people perceive different pronouns: “he or she,” “they,” and other (purportedly) gender-neutral identifiers — “the applicant,” “the student,” and “the older adult;” (2) understand whether the above listed pronouns and identifiers carry a male bias; and (3) examine whether perceptions of pronouns and other identifiers change in different topic areas. Preliminary results suggest that both "they" and other supposedly non-gendered identifiers such as "the applicant" show a male bias. Topic area may also play a role in the extent to which “they” and non-gendered identifiers elicit a male-bias.

Faculty Mentor/Advisor

Lisa Wagner