Think political leader — think he or she? A multi-country test of a gender-fair language intervention to reduce gendered leadership stereotypes
| Authors |
PETERS Kim JEFTIĆ Alma BALLARD Timothy ZHOU Steven STEFFENS Niklas K. INCEOGLU Ilke RYAN Michelle K. BONGIORNO Renata EAGLY Alice ARRIAGA Patrícia ESPINOSA Agustin ACZEL Balazs ADETULA Adeyemi AGLIOTI Salvatore M. AKCA Ece DIREKÇI Emine Akman ALIZADEH Zahra ALONSO-ARBIOL Itziar AMRU Muhammad Fahizza ANDRE John ANTÓNIO Raquel ARCAGÖK Ugur ARINZE Nwadiogo Chisom ASADOLLAHPOUR Romina ASATRYAN Gayane Alberty AYDIN Muhammed Sukru AYKUTOGLU Bülent AZIMISEFAT Parisa AZOUAGHE Soufian BALIM Sercan BANÍK Gabriel BARZYKOWSKI Krystian BECKER Maja BENNINGSTAD Nora C.G. BERENGUER Julia BIDZAN-WIĄCEK Monika BŁASZCZAK Bartosz RODRIGUES Ricardo Borges BORINCA Islam BOUCHER Leanne BOUKARRAS Sarah BOULAHYA Mustapha BOZKUŞ-DEMIR Olcay BRANDT Mark J. BRODARD Fabrice BROHMER Hilmar BUCHANAN Erin M. BUCZNY Jacek BÜKÜN Mehmet Fatih BURSELL Moa BUSCEMI Andrea BUTT Muhammad Mussaffa CAICEDO-MORENO Angelica CALLUSO Cinzia CAMGÖZ Selin Metin CANDEL Octav Sorin CASTELAIN Thomas CASTRO-ABRIL Pablo CAVDAN Müge CHALEERAKTRAKOON Trawin CHARYATE Abdelilah CHAVANOVANICH Jennifer CHERRADI Mohammed CHI Peilian CHOBTHAMKIT Phatthanakit CHOUDHARY Shalini ÇINAR Çagla CLAYPOOL Heather M. COEN Sharon COLLINS W. Matthew CORRAL-FRÍAS Nadia Sarai COUTO Cleno CRISTEA Mioara CYRUS-LAI Wilson ROSA Anna Dalla DANG Trac Vu DEVETAG Maria Giovanna DINIĆ Bojana M. DORES CRUZ Terence D. DUMBRAVĂ Andrei DYKLA-BIEŃ Julia EDGE Clare Ellen EFTEKHARI Sina EL MOTTALEB Youssef ELBAK Christian T. EMERY Cécile EPURE Simona EVANS Thomas R. FARNY Zuzanna FATIMA Shameem FAUZAN Mario Muhammad Noer FELLNHOFER Katharina FERACO Tommaso FERNÁNDEZ-CANSECO Ángela FERRAND Ludovic DOS SANTOS FERREIRA Paulo Roberto FILIPPI Silvia FLUIT Sam FREITAG Raquel Meister Ko FRIAS-ARMENTA Martha FRISANCO Althea FÜZÉR Katalin GARCIA-ESTRADA Linda Isis GARDUNO-REALIVAZQUEZ Karla Alejandra GASIOROWSKA Agata GEIPEL Janet GERDEL Sophie GIAMMUSSO Isabella GIANNOULI Vaitsa GIANNOULIS Konstantinos GIJZEN Fenne J.J. GINET Magali GIRERD Lola GLEIBS Ilka Helene GODBERSEN Hendrik GOGAN Taylor GONÇALVES Leticia Horbach GOURDON-KANHUKAMWE Amélie GRAFE Franca GREIJDANUS Hedy GUPTA Rashmi GUZEL Hande GYGAX Pascal HADJICHRISTIDIS Constantinos HAFFOU Soufiane HAFSTAD Marius Duhović HAGEN Mina HALAMA Peter HALFMANN Emma HANEL Paul H.P. HANSEN Eric M. HANULÍKOVÁ Adriana HARRIS Samantha M. HART Claire M. HENNINGSEN Levke HENTTONEN Pentti HOFER Gabriela HOLLENBACH Caan HUANG Xiaoya HUDIYANA Joevarian IDEISHI Kotomi ILEA Izabella IMADA Hirotaka INGENDAHL Moritz IRRAZABAL Natalia C. ISLOI Chris NDUKAIHE Izuchukwu Lawrence G. JAKOB Lea JANETH Kigobe JANG Hansori JANTUS Candela I. JUAREZ Juan Rafael JUNKER Nina M. KAČMÁR Pavol KANISAWA Asahi KARABABA Alper KARACOŞKUN Muhammed Enes KARADENIZ Gizem MASSAR Karlijn KHAOUDI Ahmed KIM Ji Hye KIM Mikyoung KIM SeungMin KLOEDEN Andrew KNAB Nadine KOHÚT Michal KÖK Büşra KOWAL Marta KRATOCHVÍL Tomáš KULICH Clara KUNDTOVÁ KLOCOVÁ Eva KÜTÜK Bahtim KUZMINSKA Anna O. LA Duc Anh LAM Kelly Ka Lai LAMM Claus LEÓN-PÉREZ Jose M. LÉOPOLD Badolo Bawala LEWIS Savannah C. LINARES Claire LISICA Delila LIU Zhiyu LIZZIO-WILSON Morgana LÓPEZ-LÓPEZ Wilson LOUIS Winnifred R. LU Jackson G. MESMER-MAGNUS Jessica MAHMOODI-BAKHTIARI Behrooz MALAPALLY Annette MALINAKOVA Klara MALINGUMU Winfrida Saimon MAMATOGLU Nihal MANH Nguyen Duc MANRÍQUEZ-ROBLES Diego MANUNTA Efisio MARIANO Joao MARIE Chloé MAROZZI Marco MARSZAŁEK Magdalena A. MARTINEZ-MORENO Edurne MARTINOT Delphine MARTONČIK Marcel MARUO Yuya ĐONLIĆ Katarina Mašić MCCUE-QUINN Buffie MEHDINEJAD Anahita COMERT Ezgi Mehmetoglu MEIER Zdenek MEIJER Ewout H. MEIMOUN Ethan MELKUMYAN Yuliana G. MELLUL Julie METIN-ORTA Irem MIKALONIS Linaja MIRISOLA Alberto MIŠETIĆ Katarina MISIAK Michal MONTEFINESE Maria MOORE Nicole MORADI Mahmoud MORENO-BELLA Eva MOUHSSINE Lamya MUNDORF Annakarina NADIF Houdaifa NAVAJAS Joaquin NAVARRETE Eduardo NEELY Brett H. NGUYEN Thuc Hien T. NGUYEN Thi Loan BALINT Elena-Gabriela NINKOVIĆ Milica THÜRMER J. Lukas NOVAK Lukas NÜBOLD Annika NUGIER Armelle NYHUS Ellen K. NYUL Boglarka O'SHEA Brian A. OBENAUER William G. OGBONNAYA Chisom E. OJEDOKUN Oluyinka PEDERSEN Josefine Ostergaard R. OTKEN Begum OTTERBRING Tobias OUOBA Nestor Motemba ÖZDEMIR Fatih ÖZDOGRU Asil Ali ÖZKILIÇCI Gökçe PARUZEL-CZACHURA Mariola PEDERSEN Freya L. PEDOVIĆ Ivana PEJIČIĆ Marija PEKER Mehmet PELICA Sofia PETCHTHIP Narumol PETTERSON Aino PFATTHEICHER Stefan PITEROVÁ Ivana PRONIZIUS Ekaterina PRUNDEANU Oara PYPNO-BLAJDA Katarzyna QUIAMZADE Alain REBEL Jannes Luka REDERSDORFF Sandrine REDLINGSHÖFER Sara RETOWSKI Sylwiusz REYES Andres Felipe REYES-AGUILAR Azalea RIBEIRO Gianni ŘIČAŘOVÁ Gabriela ROBERT Céline ROBERTS S. Craig ROCZNIEWSKA Marta A. RÖER Jan Philipp ROHMANN Anette ROSENBERGER Erika J. ROSS Robert M. ROTH Leopold Helmut Otto RUIZ-FERNANDEZ Susana RUSSELL Shawn M. SABBAR Shaho SAHLI Fatima Zahra SANDEN Guro R. ABBATE Costanza Scaffidi SCHÄFER Sarina J. SCHMIDT Kathleen SCHNEPF Julia SCHORCH Sebastian L. SCHWARTZ-SALAZAR Sofía SCIGALA Karolina Aleksandra SELJESETH Ingvild Müller ŞEN-GÜMÜŞTAŞ Esra Cansu SEPEHRI Amir SEROBYAN Astghik SHALVI Shaul SIEGLER Anna SILBERG Michal SILBERG Slavka SINANOVIĆ Emina LILJAHARJU Samuel SKEWES Lea SMITH Adam R. SOLAK Çaglar SONMEZ Fatih SOROKOWSKA Agnieszka SOROKOWSKI Piotr ŠROL Jakub STANKE Franziska A. STENLING Andreas STEPHEN Ian D. STERN Julia STORAGE Daniel STUDZIŃSKA Anna M. SUH Jihyun SUITNER Caterina SZASZI Barnabas SZMIDKA Alicja Jadwiga SZUMOWSKA Ewa SZWINGE Olivia B. TAFVELIN Susanne TAKIZAWA Ruri TASA Hande TASIOS Theodosios TAVEL Peter TEJADA Julian TEMEL Ahmet TEVICHAPONG Passagorn THAM Yukari Jessica TODOSIJEVIĆ Marija TOME Natalia L. TONINI Fernando TONNESEN Mathilde H. TORRES Sergio C. TRAGANTZOPOULOU Panagiota TRÉMOLIERE Bastien TUOMINEN Jarno ULLENBOOM Jil ULUG Özden Melis URSU Andreea VEER Anna Elisabeth van ’t VAIDIS David C. VAN GILS Suzanne VAUGHN Leigh Ann VERCILLO Marta VIANELLO Michelangelo GONZALEZ Maria Elena Villarreal VINCZE Orsolya DOS SANTOS MIRANDA Vivian VOGEL Susanne VOJTÍŠEK Tomáš VON THIELE SCHWARZ Ulrica VRANKA Marek VU Bich-Phuong B.WALCZAK Radosław WENDT Guilherme Welter WIBOWO Rahmadina Syarafina WILLIAMS James S. WOJCIECHOWSKA Mirella WOOD Pujith Niel WU Deborah J. WU Qingyang WUOLIO Mariel Pauliina XIA Ziqian YANG Tao YANG Chunhui YANG Jane Jingyao YE Jinquan YOUSEFI-GERAKOUHI Niyayesh YÜCE-SELVI Ümran YUSTISIA Whinda ZAHARIA Daniela Victoria ZAYETS Inesa ZDUN-RYŻEWSKA Agata ZDYBEK Przemyslaw ZHAO Xian ZHENG Wang ZICKFELD Janis H. ZIDKOVA Radka ZIÓŁKOWSKI Artur |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Peer-reviewed scientific article |
| Magazine / Source | Leadership Quarterly |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| web | https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/105051165266 |
| Doi | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2026.101991 |
| Keywords | leadership; gender; stereotypes; language bias |
| Description | Women are greatly underrepresented in positions of political leadership around the world. In seeking to explain this underrepresentation, some researchers have pointed to people's tendencies to stereotype leaders as more similar to men than women as these tendencies can support the belief that women are unsuited to leadership. This project aimed to test whether a subtle linguistic intervention was able to ameliorate this gender bias in political leadership stereotypes across different languages and national contexts (country/region N = 42, language N = 30, sample N = 22,996). Specifically, this project examined whether gender-fair language (e.g., the use of paired pronouns ‘he or she’) can reduce the tendency for people to stereotype political leaders as more similar to men than women. To increase the rigor with which these stereotypes were measured, this project complemented the dominant ‘cheap talk’ measure of personal stereotype content with an incentivised community measure of this content. As expected, participants stereotyped political leaders as more similar to men than women; this pattern was stronger on the incentivised measure of community stereotypes. Unexpectedly, there was no evidence that paired pronouns reduced this bias (there was weak exploratory evidence that paired nouns increased participants' tendencies to stereotype political leaders as more similar to women). This project suggests that the ability of gender-fair language interventions to ameliorate gender bias in the political leadership domain may be limited. |