The electrophysiological underpinnings of processing gender stereotypes in language.

ABSTRACT: Despite the widely documented influence of gender stereotypes on social behaviour, little is known about the electrophysiological substrates engaged in the processing of such information when conveyed by language. Using event-related brain potentials (ERPs), we examined the brain response to third-person pronouns (lei "she" and lui "he") that were implicitly primed by definitional (passeggera(FEM) "passenger", pensionato(MASC) "pensioner"), or stereotypical antecedents (insegnante "teacher", conducente "driver"). An N400-like effect on the pronoun emerged when it was preceded by a definitionally incongruent prime (passeggera(FEM)--lui; pensionato(MASC)--lei), and a stereotypically incongruent prime for masculine pronouns only (insegnante--lui). In addition, a P300-like effect was found whe

SUBMITTER: Siyanova-Chanturia A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3513306 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature