Gender schematicity, identity salience, and -linked language use
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use, also yields the conjecture that self-categorization for a particular social group maximally affects
the adherence to group norms for those who are high in both chronic accessibility and for whom
group identity is highly salient (Blanz, 1999; Spears, 2001). Theoretically, the most exaggerated
expression of prototypical gender-linked language should occur when chronic gender identity
accessibility and GIS are reciprocally high, resulting in the following hypothesis:
H
4
:
Specific gender-linked language use depends on both gender schematicity (i.e.,
chronic accessibility) and the salience of gender identity, such that gender schematic
individuals, communicating with a highly salient gender identity, use the most
prototypical gender-linked language.
The following study tests whether men and women use language differently and if gender
schematicity and GIS play a role either individually and/or jointly. The hypotheses were investigated
in two phases. Phase I developed the manipulation for GIS in a pilot experiment. Phase II tested the
hypotheses in an experiment.
Phase I
The purpose of Phase I was to find a valid way to manipulate GIS. Participants in a high GIS
condition needed to report thinking about themselves in terms of their gender relative to another
social category—in this case being a student—and participants in a low GIS condition needed to
report thinking about themselves in terms of the other social category relative to their gender. An
effective and tested method for manipulating GIS was sought, as previous methods confounded
gender identity with status (Hogg, 1985) or were problematic (e.g., Hallett, 2002).
Method
Participants. Fifty-one undergraduates (18 men; 33 women), enrolled in communication
courses at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), volunteered for Phase I.
Gender identity salience. Realistically, individuals cannot be told not to think of themselves
in terms of gender. As such, the high GIS condition was created by having individuals identify with
Convention