The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Communication 233

interaction partner may interact to influence

language. One study showed that females

used more tentative language than males for

masculine topics and males used more tenta-

tive language than females for feminine top-

ics—but only when communicating with the

other sex (Palomares, 2009). There were no

differences in tentative language when com-

municating with the same sex.

The same concern I raised about the

brevity of interactions for the study of inter-

action styles applies to the study of language.

Sex differences in language are more likely

to be found in shorter interactions. In ex-

perimental settings, participants are strangers

and interactions are brief. This is the kind of

situation in which sex is salient and stereo-

types are likely to operate. Sex differences in

communication disappear when longer in-

teractions are examined; as men and women

become familiar with each other, their speech

becomes similar.

One reason that sex differences in lan-

guage may disappear as people get to know

one another is that sex becomes a less salient

feature of the interaction. Gender salience has

been found to explain sex differences in lan-

guage and to be a condition that magnifies sex

differences in language. The explanatory func-

tion of gender salience was demonstrated in a

study that showed the extent to which women

and men were thinking about being female/

male during a communication was associ-

ated with greater sex differences in language

(Palomares, 2009). The impact of salience also

was demonstrated in a study of college stu-

dents that showed women used more emotion

language than men when they were induced

to think about themselves in terms of their sex

(gender salient) but not in terms of their stu-

dent status (Palomares, 2008). Another study

showed that gender salience only affected

the language of gender schematic people—

that is, people who are sensitive to gender

(Palomares, 2004). Gender schematic women

used more feminine language and less mas-

culine language, but only if gender was made

salient. The salience manipulation had similar

effects on men’s language, but the effects were

not as strong. The language of gender asche-

matic men and women was not affected by the

salience manipulation.

To the extent that sex differences in

language are due to socialization, these dif-

ferences may not generalize to other cultures

with different socialization practices. There is

a fairly large literature comparing communi-

cation in the United States to communication

in Japan (Waldron & DiMare, 1998). Many of

the sex differences in language found in this

chapter do not generalize to Japan. For ex-

ample, sex differences in assertive language

found in the United States are not found in

Japan (Thompson, Klopf, & Ishii, 1991). In

general, the language that the Japanese use is

DO GENDER 7.2

Sex Differences

in Language Use

Have five female friends and five male

friends write stories about a specific

topic—but the same topic (current re-

lationship problem, how they feel about

school, relationships with parents, or ear-

liest memory). See if your classmates can

guess the sex of the writer better than

chance (i.e., more than 50%). Ask what

information they used to identify the sex

of the speaker. Also ask them to rate the

stories on the use of the language features

shown in Table 7.2. Compare the accurate

guesses to the inaccurate guesses to see

which information was more diagnostic.

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