CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 41Gender Studies in LanguageLinguistic Variation and MorphologySocial and Intergroup Psychology

Capturing socially motivated linguistic change: how the use of gender-fair language affects support for social initiatives in Austria and Poland

Open access
Formanowicz, Magdalena M., Cisłak, Aleksandra, Horvath, Lisa K., Sczesny, Sabine·2015·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01617PMC PMC4628104
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Gender-fair language consists of the symmetric linguistic treatment of women and men instead of using masculine forms as generics. In this study, we examine how the use of gender-fair language affects readers' support for social initiatives in Poland and Austria. While gender-fair language is relatively novel in Poland, it is well established in Austria. This difference may lead to different perceptions of gender-fair usage in these speech communities. Two studies conducted in Poland investigate whether the evaluation of social initiatives (Study 1: quotas for women on election lists; Study 2: support for women students or students from countries troubled by war) is affected by how female proponents (lawyers, psychologists, sociologists, and academics) are referred to, with masculine forms (traditional) or with feminine forms (modern, gender-fair). Study 3 replicates Study 2 in Austria. Our results indicate that in Poland, gender-fair language has negative connotations and therefore, detrimental effects particularly when used in gender-related contexts. Conversely, in Austria, where gender-fair language has been implemented and used for some time, there are no such negative effects. This pattern of results may inform the discussion about formal policies regulating the use of gender-fair language.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01617

Cites

27 of 27 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In Formanowicz et al. (2015), Polish participants rated the text more positively when written in the generic masculine, whereas Austrian participants responded more favorably to the feminine version.

    “The results showed that Polish participants rated the text more positively when written in the generic masculine, whereas Austrian participants responded more favorably to the feminine version.”

    From What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Formanowicz et al. (2015)

    The General discussion reports that Polish social initiatives were evaluated more favorably with masculine than feminine forms, while the Austrian study found higher support when female proponents were described with feminine forms. The claim overgeneralizes the Polish result: Study 1 found the difference among men but not women, and Study 2 found it for the gender-equality initiative but not the non-gender initiative. The measured outcome was evaluation of the initiatives, not a rating of the text itself. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • For both German-speaking and Polish-speaking participants, the more conservative a person, the more negatively they evaluated the described initiative, irrespective of the used language.

    “For both German-speaking and Polish-speaking participants, the more conservative a person, the more negatively they evaluated the described initiative, irrespective of the used language.”

    From What affects people’s use of and attitudes toward gender-inclusive language? A literature review (2025) · cites this paper as Formanowicz et al. (2015)

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 28 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Giles H. Coupland N. (1991). Language: Contexts and Consequences. Keynes: Open University Press.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Formanowicz, M. M., Cisłak, A., Horvath, L. K., & Sczesny, S.
Affiliations
  • University of Bern (CH)
  • Uniwersytet SWPS (PL)
  • Technical University of Munich (DE)
Corresponding author
Formanowicz, Magdalena M.
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2015-10-31
Volume
6
Pages
1617-1617
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01617
PMC
PMC4628104
OpenAlex
W2178434580
Cited by
38
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4
FWCI
7.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • BORIS (University Library Bern) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) (submittedVersion)
  • Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
Funders
  • Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)
  • Ministerstwo Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego
  • SCIEX fellowship of the Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities (11.204-1)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
  • Social Sciences › Linguistics and Language › Linguistic Variation and Morphology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Keywords
gender-inclusive language, gender-neutral language, language change, social initiatives, gender stereotypes, women in politics, gender quotas, language attitudes, language policy, Poland, Austria

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review