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Gender stereotypes in agreement processing with role nouns: a study on Russian
Natalia Slioussar1,2, Daria Antropova2
1School of Linguistics, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.
Frontiers in Psychology
|October 3, 2025
Summary
Russian nouns for professions often default to masculine, even when referring to women. This study found a preference for masculine agreement, impacting sentence processing and acceptability, especially with gender stereotypes.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Sociolinguistics
Background:
- Russian nouns for professions and social roles are predominantly masculine.
- While feminine agreement is grammatically possible for some nouns referring to women, its usage and acceptability are complex and underexplored.
- Extralinguistic factors, such as gender stereotypes, may influence the processing of grammatical gender agreement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the processing and acceptability of Russian sentences featuring profession nouns with varying gender agreements.
- To examine the interplay between grammatical gender, agreement types (masculine vs. feminine), and extralinguistic factors like gender stereotypes.
Main Methods:
- Conducted two word-by-word self-paced reading studies to measure online processing.
- Performed one acceptability judgment study to assess offline preferences.
- Manipulated grammatical gender in attributive and predicative agreement and considered gender stereotypes of professions.
Main Results:
- A consistent preference for masculine agreement was observed both online and offline, irrespective of grammatical correctness.
- This preference was less pronounced for stereotypically "female" professions.
- Ungrammatical sentences generally received lower ratings and longer reading times; however, unexpected feminine agreement for stereotypically "male" professions also significantly slowed reading.
Conclusions:
- Grammatical gender and extralinguistic factors interact significantly in the processing of Russian profession nouns.
- Despite grammatical options for feminine agreement, masculine agreement is preferred, highlighting the influence of linguistic conventions and societal biases.
- Processing difficulties arise not only from ungrammaticality but also from violations of gender-based expectations associated with professions.
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