The present study examined the interaction of grammatical gender and gender stereotypes in Modern Greek. Native Greek adults were primed with Greek occupational nouns of common gender (i.e., nouns that are used for both male and female characters) with a masculine ending and a stereotypically male or female bias (e.g., iδravlikós ‘plumber’ and esθitikós ‘beautician’), followed by a masculine or feminine pronoun target (aftós ‘he’ or aftí ‘she’), forming stereotypically congruent (iδravlikós – aftós, ‘plumber – he’, esθitikós – aftí, ‘beautician - she’) and incongruent (iδravlikós – aftí, ‘plumber – she’, esθitikós – aftós, ‘beautician - he’) prime-target pairs. The participants’ task was to decide the gender of the pronoun, and their response times were measured. An effect of congruency was found for masculine pronouns, with slower response times when the masculine pronoun had been primed with a stereotypically female role noun. No such effect of congruency was found for feminine pronouns. This suggests that not only gender stereotypicality but also the morphological form of the noun influenced processing in Greek role nouns. Specifically, apparent morphosyntactic cues, albeit being uninformative about referential gender, seemingly generated a male bias and mitigated the impact of gender stereotypes associated with female-biased role nouns in prime-target pairs involving a feminine pronoun, reflecting an interaction between grammatical form and stereotype.

Gay-sounding men are often perceived as not suitable for leadership roles. However, this bias may depend on the type of role they apply for since gay men are seen as a better fit for stereotypically feminine than masculine roles. Hence, gay-sounding men may have an advantage when applying for feminine leadership roles. In a pilot study, we identified Italian male speakers who were perceived as either gay- or straight-sounding by British listeners. In the main study, we tested the perception and career advancement to more senior roles of candidates who already held managerial positions. British participants (N = 113) listened to foreign (Italian) male candidates who either sounded gay or straight. They then judged their suitability for stereotypically feminine, masculine, and neutral senior roles and rated them in terms of agency and communion. Results showed a positive bias such as that gay-sounding candidates were seen as more suitable for stereotypically feminine senior roles than straight-sounding candidates because they were seen as more communal. Such positive bias was stronger among those participants who reported the lowest level of negative attitudes toward gay men. These findings contribute to the current literature on voice-based discrimination by showing positive stereotyping and positive biases toward gay-sounding men.

The present study investigates gender differences in the use of Namibian German versus Standard German in multilingual German-speakers raised in Namibia. Based on data from the DNam corpus of spoken Namibian German, the study compares the frequency of use of Namibian-German lexical and grammatical variants and their Standard German equivalents in male versus female speakers. For the use of lexical features, clear gender differences emerged, with male speakers producing significantly more specific Namibian German variants than female speakers. For grammatical features, however, no gender differences were found. The observed gender differences for lexical features were significantly stronger in informal than in formal communicative settings. The results are discussed in relation to theoretical accounts of the role of gender in language use.

Gender is a construct in constant evolution.Socio-cultural gender norms, gender stereo types, as well as the way gender is perceived, interpreted, and conceptualized by people, are constantly changing.At the same time, the way we talk about gender, both as a whole and about specific genders mimics these societal changes.Existing language is shifting to include women and gender minorities in roles that were previously reserved for men: take, for example, the case of gendered languages developing feminine forms for job titles that were previously only masculine, such as the word ministro (Italian translation of "secretary of State", masculine) acquiring the form ministra (feminine).These feminine forms are more common in more egalitarian countries (Hodel et al., 2017), suggesting that gender and language go hand in hand.At the same time, new linguistic neutralization strategies are being developed to describe previously invisible and unrecognized identities, such as non-binary individuals, who are often confronted not only with highly gendered societies, but also highly gendered languages.One exam ple of this is instances of gender-neutral neo-pronouns making up for binary language forms, such as the English ze or the Swedish hen (e.g., Renstrm et al., 2024), which were shown to reduce the androcentric bias more than traditional neutral words (e.g., singular they; Lindqvist et al., 2019).Another example is the utilization of written neutralization forms such as the "gender star" (i.e., -*), which has been shown to elicit inclusive gender

Past research has found that gender-inclusive language is more commonly used in egalitarian cultures. People in middle-class communities not only endorse more egalitarian values but also more strongly believe that social change is possible than people in working-class communities. As such, there may be a higher demand for and, thus, use of gender-inclusive language in middle-class professions than for working class professions. Two studies investigated the use of feminine and gender-inclusive job titles for working vs. middle class professions in two grammatical gender languages, namely feminine job titles in Polish corpus texts (Study 1) and gender-inclusive job titles in Swiss German job advertisements (Study 2). Results showed that feminine and gender-inclusive job titles were indeed more often used for middle- than for working-class professions in both countries. These findings document the need to take social class into account in future language research as well as in the implementation of language reforms.

The expression of specific nonverbal behaviors has been proposed to play an important role in the development of interpersonal trust. In this review, we examined the andragogical descriptions presented by 8 different disciplines for which behaviors are used to build trust. Despite drawing from largely separate source material, cross-discipline analyses revealed consistency regarding the recommended behaviors that should be used to communicate trust, including eye contact, smiling, mimicry, and maintaining physical proximity. A comparison of these behaviors with those seen in the attraction literature and parenting context further suggests that the function of such behaviors is not confined to the professional context. A model in which affiliative behaviors are used in the expression of trust and interpersonal attraction is discussed.

Kama muta is a positive emotion that is commonly elicited against a backdrop of difficulties and reorients one’s values towards priorities in life. Hence, we expect kama muta to cause similar beneficial shifts in attitudes, when exposed to collective threat such as natural disasters. In these contexts, kama muta may help to build individuals’ resources for prosocial action, through mechanisms like reducing the perceived burden of their own personal problems. As such, the current research proposes that kama muta reduces negative attitudes towards one's personal problems (personal problem appraisals) and is simultaneously enhanced by exposure to collective threat. Across three studies on Japanese participants (N = 725), we found that participants' experiences of kama muta predicted alleviations in their personal problem appraisals, even after controlling for other positive emotions. However, kama muta was not enhanced by experimental manipulation of collective threat contexts, but was instead positively correlated with subjective perceptions of the societal impact of these threats.

As outlined by the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC), civic competences are core elements for active participation in a democratic society. This study aimed to examine the linkages between four civic competences (empathy, respect, responsibility, and cooperation) and civic engagement (attitudes and behaviors) during adolescence, as well as test the potential role played by gender, both as a covariate and a moderator. We recruited a sample of 446 adolescents (70% females; M age = 16.51, SD = 1.35) from a high school in Southern Italy and administered a set of online self-report scales: civic attitudes and behaviors were evaluated through the Civic Engagement Scale; empathy was assessed through the Empathic Concern subscale of the Brief Interpersonal Reactivity Index; cooperation was assessed through the Cooperation Scale; responsibility and respect were measured through a set of descriptors provided by the RFCDC. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was run to test the hypothesized associations, and a series of multiple group SEM was performed to evaluate the moderating role of gender on the relations between civic competences and civic engagement. Our findings showed only empathy and cooperation were positively and significantly related to civic attitudes and civic behaviors. Gender differences were found for empathy, cooperation, and respect, with girls reporting higher levels than boys. Adolescents’ gender was also found to be a significant moderator of relations linking empathy, cooperation and respect with civic engagement. Limitations and implications are discussed.

Social entrepreneurship, characterized by the development of innovative business solutions for sociocultural and environmental issues, has attracted the interest of psychologists in recent years. Previous work has highlighted the important role of personality and cognitive factors in understanding why individuals become social entrepreneurs. However, less attention has been dedicated to how different variables studied in the group processes literature relate to the formation of intentions toward social entrepreneurship. One possible approach to understanding psychological factors that correlate with social entrepreneurship intentions is the feeling of attachment to one's national group. Constructive patriotism, defined by the support for the ingroup through constructive criticism, shows stronger relations with progressivism and innovation than blind patriotism. We proposed that constructive patriotism, but not its blind counterpart, positively predicts social entrepreneurship intentions by increasing positive change collective action intentions. Two cross-sectional studies (N = 514) showed that constructive, but not blind patriotism, was positively related to social entrepreneurship intentions. Furthermore, constructive patriotism was related to social entrepreneurship intentions through greater levels of collective action intentions. The same mediational pattern did not hold when blind patriotism was considered a predictor of social entrepreneurship intentions. Specifically, being devoted to one's nation and questioning its harmful policies might predict social entrepreneurship intentions through stronger inclinations for social change actions.