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Effects of the gender colon on text comprehensibility, text comprehension and mental representation of women: an exploratory experimental study
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DOI：10.1007/s11218-026-10269-z.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
In grammatical gender languages such as German, the generic masculine is a linguistic convention argued to foster linguistic imbalances to the disadvantage of women and nonbinary individuals. The gender colon as a form of gender-fair language was introduced to combat this problem. Critics of gender-fair language, however, argue that gender-fair language impedes text comprehensibility and text comprehension without fostering individuals’ mental representation of women. The present study aimed to examine these claims for the gender colon. The analytic sample consisted of 260 German-speaking participants (M = 29.67 years, 59.6% female). Applying multiple linear regression models, results showed that the gender colon did not significantly impact text comprehension. Results were less consistent regarding text comprehensibility: The text using the generic masculine was rated as more comprehensible, but this difference was not significant when covariates were included. In turn, participants’ mental representation of women was significantly higher in the gender colon condition compared to the generic masculine condition. These findings support the use of the gender colon to promote inclusive communication.
Keywords:
Generic masculine
Gender colon
Comprehensibility
Comprehension
Mental representation
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