ABSTRACT
There are two abiding truths on which the general public and research scholars find themselves in uneasy agreement: Men and women speak the same language, and men and women speak that language differently. In an assessment of oral descriptions of landscape photographs by sixth graders, university freshmen and sophomores, graduate teaching assistants, and people in their 50s and 60s, the people reported that language differences predicted substantial proportions of the ratings on all three psychological dimensions. The pattern of perceptions, the gender-linked language effect, consists of female communicators being rated higher on Socio-Intellectual Status (high social status and literate) and Aesthetic Quality (nice and beautiful), whereas males are rated higher on Dynamism (strong and aggressive). In support of another theoretical assumption, the authors have demonstrated in five investigations that gender-based language differences are implicated in the effect. No matter who makes the appraisals, the subtle language differences have substantial consequences in how communicators are evaluated.
