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Original Communication

Does the Use of Gender-Fair Language Influence the Comprehensibility of Texts?

An Experiment Using an Authentic Contract Manipulating Single Role Nouns and Pronouns

Published Online:March 25, 2019https://doi.org/10.1024/1421-0185/a000223

Abstract

Abstract. In many languages masculine nouns and pronouns can be interpreted to refer to both male and female referents. However, even when the authors expressly point out that masculine forms are being used to refer to both women and men, readers and listeners predominantly form mental images of men. A gender-fair language that uses either masculine and feminine forms or gender-neutral forms to refer to women and men more equally elicits mental images of women and men. Critics often argue, however, that gender-fair language makes texts less comprehensible (readable). The present study tests this assumption for the German language: 355 students read a randomly assigned text that either used masculine-only forms or consistently used both masculine and feminine forms. After that, they answered the comprehensibility questionnaire by Friedrich (2017). Participants who had read a text in gender-fair language did not give statistically significant lower ratings of comprehensibility than participants who had read a text that used masculine-only forms (partial η2 < .01; p > .05). The results indicate that the use of gender-fair language does not impair the comprehensibility of texts.

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