The face of "hen" - the influence of a gender neutral pronoun on gender categorization and face perception
In 2015, 'hen' was included in the official dictionary of the Swedish language as a gender-neutral third personal pronoun. 'Hen' can be used to refer to individuals outside of the binary gender dichotomy, or to when gender is unimportant or unknown. Previous research show that gender is a primary category when judging others, and that gender is perceived dichotomous rather than continuous despite that individuals in reality display a wide variation in looks and gender expressions. One question in the project is to investigate whether 'hen' can decrease the dichotomous categorization of gender. A second question is whether 'hen' can decrease gender stereotypes when judging others. Previous research show that happiness is more easily perceived in female faces while aggression is more easily perceived in male faces. Studies also show that androgynous faces labeled as male or female are judged in accordance with the associated gender stereotypes even though there are no gender cues in the face. Memory may also be affected by what gender a face is labeled as. The project is conducted through a series of experiments to test if and how 1) 'hen' can decrease the binary categorization of gender (male/female), 2) emotions are differentially perceived in faces labeled 'she', 'he', or 'hen', 3) choice of pronoun in relation to face presentation affect judgments of personality, and 4) how recall is affected by the looks and pronouns of a face.
Final report
The Impact of the Gender-Neutral Pronoun "Hen" on Gender Categorization and Facial Perception (P16-0058:1)
Purpose and Development of the Project
The gender-neutral pronoun "hen" was introduced into the Swedish language in 2014 and is used to refer to individuals outside the binary gender dichotomy, as well as in cases where gender is irrelevant, unknown, or when anonymity is required. The purpose of the project was to investigate how the use of "hen" influences the categorization and assessment of faces. The project conducted a series of experiments to examine the effects of "hen" on 1) gender categorization, 2) emotion recognition, 3) attribution of personality traits, and 4) facial memory.
The project's objectives have been well-developed, including the number of experiments conducted and the reception the project has received in international collaborations and conferences.
The project primarily involved experimental studies. Significant effort was dedicated to creating stimulus materials where levels of femininity and masculinity in faces were varied through morphing, which were then used in the studies.
Key results and conclusions
The project started with a focus on the debate following the introduction of "hen" into the Swedish language. Initially, opinions about "hen" were polarized. Opponents of "hen" were in the majority, and a critical question for the project was whether such negative attitudes could spill over into various judgments, such as assessments of personality traits or likability. Advocates of "hen" suggested that it could reduce the influence of gender stereotypes and lead to more neutral perceptions when compared to binary pronouns. The studies conducted in the project aimed to test both positive and negative effects of "hen" usage.
In conclusion, we found that the effects of "hen" seem to be less pronounced than both opponents and proponents suggested. This means that no strong effects, positive or negative, have been found. However, it is clear that "hen" has become a permanent part of the Swedish language. "Hen" also appears to have a neutral significance in that it is not more associated with either of the binary genders.
The three most important results are specified below:
Are there negative aspects of using "hen"? Among the experiments conducted, we did not find any negative spill-over effects. Participants who read about a person referred to as "hen" did not attribute more negative personality traits compared to individuals referred to with binary pronouns and they did not perceive these people as less attractive (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2023; van Berlekom & Gustafsson Sendén, 2023). However, our studies have shown that "hen" reduced a male bias in comparison to other neutral words (e.g., "person") which were associated more often with masculinity and men (Lindqvist et al., 2018). We also found that "hen" compared with “hon/han” reduced gender-typical mental representations (Renström et al., 2023). This means that when "he/she" was used to describe people in general, the mental representations become more gender prototypical compared to when "hen" is used.
How does "hen" affect memory recognition of faces? Previous studies have shown that information about gender, when presented with a face, can exaggerate perceptions of how gender-typical a face is or the type of emotions it displays. Initial studies of emotion recognition did not show any effects of gender stereotypes on emotion recognition as shown in previous literature. For this reason, further investigation into emotions when "hen" is used was not pursued due to the absence of such stereotype effects. In other experiments, we have also been unable to demonstrate that pronouns affect how masculine, feminine, or androgynous a face is perceived. One study revealed an effect of pronouns in that participants who encoded a face along with a binary pronoun ("she" or "he") spent more time determining whether other faces of the same gender were the encoded face or not (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2023).
Can "hen" reduce binary gender categorization? We have also conducted experiments where participants have used "hen" in unrelated tasks (such as writing sentences containing "hen") and then categorized gender-ambiguous faces. Participants who used "hen" (compared to "she" or "he") were more inclined to categorize faces as non-binary. This means that the use of "hen" can make people more open to gender categorization beyond the binary. However, it should also be noted here that the most common tendency is for people to strongly categorize a face as binary (van Berlekom, 2023a, 2023b).
New Research Questions
Since languages differ in terms of pronouns, we have explored gender-neutral pronouns in languages other than Swedish. In English, there are gender-neutral pronouns (e.g, “they”, "ze" or "xe"). Therefore, we examined the mental representations related to English gender-neutral pronouns (Lindqvist et al., 2018). We have also investigated the mental representations activated in languages with exclusively gender-neutral pronouns, such as Turkish and Finnish (Renström et al., 2022). We have developed research questions that more generally explore how attitudes towards "hen" have evolved over time (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2021), as well as whether attitudes towards "hen" are influenced by participants' own gender identities (Morgenroth et al., 2020).
Dissemination of Results
Results from studies about "hen" have been published in scientific journals and presented at scientific conferences. The fact that Sweden was a pioneer in introducing gender-inclusive pronouns means that the articles we have written are regularly cited (over 600 citations across all "hen" related articles). Awareness of Sweden and gender-neutral pronouns has also led to interviews in international magazines (e.g., Reuters https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GENDER-LANGUAGE/LGBT/mopanqoelva/ , Wired https://www.wired.com/story/actually-gender-neutral-pronouns-can-change-a-culture/]). The project group also has its own website (genderfair.se).
Purpose and Development of the Project
The gender-neutral pronoun "hen" was introduced into the Swedish language in 2014 and is used to refer to individuals outside the binary gender dichotomy, as well as in cases where gender is irrelevant, unknown, or when anonymity is required. The purpose of the project was to investigate how the use of "hen" influences the categorization and assessment of faces. The project conducted a series of experiments to examine the effects of "hen" on 1) gender categorization, 2) emotion recognition, 3) attribution of personality traits, and 4) facial memory.
The project's objectives have been well-developed, including the number of experiments conducted and the reception the project has received in international collaborations and conferences.
The project primarily involved experimental studies. Significant effort was dedicated to creating stimulus materials where levels of femininity and masculinity in faces were varied through morphing, which were then used in the studies.
Key results and conclusions
The project started with a focus on the debate following the introduction of "hen" into the Swedish language. Initially, opinions about "hen" were polarized. Opponents of "hen" were in the majority, and a critical question for the project was whether such negative attitudes could spill over into various judgments, such as assessments of personality traits or likability. Advocates of "hen" suggested that it could reduce the influence of gender stereotypes and lead to more neutral perceptions when compared to binary pronouns. The studies conducted in the project aimed to test both positive and negative effects of "hen" usage.
In conclusion, we found that the effects of "hen" seem to be less pronounced than both opponents and proponents suggested. This means that no strong effects, positive or negative, have been found. However, it is clear that "hen" has become a permanent part of the Swedish language. "Hen" also appears to have a neutral significance in that it is not more associated with either of the binary genders.
The three most important results are specified below:
Are there negative aspects of using "hen"? Among the experiments conducted, we did not find any negative spill-over effects. Participants who read about a person referred to as "hen" did not attribute more negative personality traits compared to individuals referred to with binary pronouns and they did not perceive these people as less attractive (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2023; van Berlekom & Gustafsson Sendén, 2023). However, our studies have shown that "hen" reduced a male bias in comparison to other neutral words (e.g., "person") which were associated more often with masculinity and men (Lindqvist et al., 2018). We also found that "hen" compared with “hon/han” reduced gender-typical mental representations (Renström et al., 2023). This means that when "he/she" was used to describe people in general, the mental representations become more gender prototypical compared to when "hen" is used.
How does "hen" affect memory recognition of faces? Previous studies have shown that information about gender, when presented with a face, can exaggerate perceptions of how gender-typical a face is or the type of emotions it displays. Initial studies of emotion recognition did not show any effects of gender stereotypes on emotion recognition as shown in previous literature. For this reason, further investigation into emotions when "hen" is used was not pursued due to the absence of such stereotype effects. In other experiments, we have also been unable to demonstrate that pronouns affect how masculine, feminine, or androgynous a face is perceived. One study revealed an effect of pronouns in that participants who encoded a face along with a binary pronoun ("she" or "he") spent more time determining whether other faces of the same gender were the encoded face or not (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2023).
Can "hen" reduce binary gender categorization? We have also conducted experiments where participants have used "hen" in unrelated tasks (such as writing sentences containing "hen") and then categorized gender-ambiguous faces. Participants who used "hen" (compared to "she" or "he") were more inclined to categorize faces as non-binary. This means that the use of "hen" can make people more open to gender categorization beyond the binary. However, it should also be noted here that the most common tendency is for people to strongly categorize a face as binary (van Berlekom, 2023a, 2023b).
New Research Questions
Since languages differ in terms of pronouns, we have explored gender-neutral pronouns in languages other than Swedish. In English, there are gender-neutral pronouns (e.g, “they”, "ze" or "xe"). Therefore, we examined the mental representations related to English gender-neutral pronouns (Lindqvist et al., 2018). We have also investigated the mental representations activated in languages with exclusively gender-neutral pronouns, such as Turkish and Finnish (Renström et al., 2022). We have developed research questions that more generally explore how attitudes towards "hen" have evolved over time (Gustafsson Sendén et al., 2021), as well as whether attitudes towards "hen" are influenced by participants' own gender identities (Morgenroth et al., 2020).
Dissemination of Results
Results from studies about "hen" have been published in scientific journals and presented at scientific conferences. The fact that Sweden was a pioneer in introducing gender-inclusive pronouns means that the articles we have written are regularly cited (over 600 citations across all "hen" related articles). Awareness of Sweden and gender-neutral pronouns has also led to interviews in international magazines (e.g., Reuters https://www.reuters.com/graphics/GENDER-LANGUAGE/LGBT/mopanqoelva/ , Wired https://www.wired.com/story/actually-gender-neutral-pronouns-can-change-a-culture/]). The project group also has its own website (genderfair.se).