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- Title
Gender is conceptualized in different ways across cultures.
- Authors
Mazzuca, Claudia; Borghi, Anna M.; van Putten, Saskia; Lugli, Luisa; Nicoletti, Roberto; Majid, Asifa
- Abstract
Gender can be considered an embodied social concept encompassing biological and cultural components. In this study, we explored whether the concept of gender varies as a function of different cultural and linguistic norms by comparing communities that vary in their social treatment of gender-related issues and linguistic encoding of gender. In Study 1, Italian, Dutch, and English-speaking participants completed a free-listing task, which showed Italians and Dutch were the most distinct in their conceptualization of gender: Italian participants focused more on socio-cultural features (e.g., discrimination , politics , and power), whereas Dutch participants focused more on the corporeal sphere (e.g., hormones , breasts , and genitals). Study 2 replicated this finding focusing on Italian and Dutch and using a typicality rating task: socio-cultural and abstract features were considered as more typical of "gender" by Italian than Dutch participants. Study 3 addressed Italian and Dutch participants' explicit beliefs about gender with a questionnaire measuring essentialism and constructivism, and consolidated results from Studies 1 and 2 showing that Dutch participants endorsed more essentialist beliefs about gender than Italian participants. Consistent with socio-cultural constructivist accounts, our results provide evidence that gender is conceptualized differently by diverse groups and is adapted to specific cultural and linguistic environments.
- Subjects
GENDER essentialism; LINGUISTICS; DUTCH people; GENDER
- Publication
Language & Cognition (Cambridge University Press), 2024, Vol 16, Issue 2, p353
- ISSN
1866-9808
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1017/langcog.2023.40