{"id":4028,"date":"2020-02-03T14:03:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T13:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/?p=4028"},"modified":"2020-03-04T12:19:07","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T11:19:07","slug":"word-usage-and-gender-is-there-a-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/2020\/02\/word-usage-and-gender-is-there-a-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Usage and Gender \u2013 is there a link?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Our Choice of words can reveal more about ourselves than we are\naware. Based on gender stereotypes we might assume that women use words to describe\nfeelings, relationships and their personal appearance more than their male\ncounterparts; whilst men use vocabulary related to sporting interests, politics\nand profanities. So just how true are these gender stereotypes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent studies undertaken at the <a href=\"https:\/\/penntoday.upenn.edu\/news\/penn-psychologists-tap-big-data-twitter-analyze-accuracy-stereotypes\">Universities\nof Pennsylvania and Melbourne<\/a> looked at the use of vocabulary on social\nmedia. The researchers asked 3000 participants to assess the language used by\nover 6000 tweeters and attempt to predict the tweeters gender, age (over or\nunder 24) and education level. The findings showed that participants were able\nto correctly guess the tweeters gender 76% of the time, compared to 69% for their\nage, and just 46% of the time for the tweeter\u2019s education level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers created word clouds based on the assumptions\nstudy participants had made about a tweeters gender. The larger the word, the\nmore closely it was associated with a particular gender. Colour coding was also\nused to demonstrate the frequency of the word. &nbsp;They looked at the overall stereotypes,\nregardless of the truth ( A and B), and then at inaccurate stereotypes where\nparticipants had incorrectly assigned gender; C showing male tweeters assumed\nto be female, and vice versa for D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"536\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordCloudsAandB.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4047\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordCloudsAandB.jpg 536w, https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordCloudsAandB-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordCloudsAandB-200x93.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The studies show, at least in the case of gender usage of\nwords, the stereotype and the truth do align, albeit with very exaggerated associations.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Almost every woman who posted about technology was inaccurately believed to be a man,&#8221;&nbsp;lead author Jordan Carpenter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly the assumption that tweeters using words such as \u2018love\u2019,&#8217; beautiful\u2019 were women led to incorrect conclusions at times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"535\" height=\"280\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordsCloudsCandD.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordsCloudsCandD.jpg 535w, https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordsCloudsCandD-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/WordsCloudsCandD-200x105.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Do you fit the gender stereotype? <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/2020\/02\/gender-vocabulary-quiz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Take the test (opens in a new tab)\">Take the test<\/a> to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How much does our choice of vocabulary reflect our gender? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[138,89],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn-english-usuage","tag-english-usage","tag-learn-english","post-item clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4028"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4051,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions\/4051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lsi.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}