ISCAP Proceedings: Abstract Presentation
Gender Pronouns in Email Signatures: What Do We Think?
Kevin Matthews
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Kaitlyn Wirth
University of North Carolina Wilmington
Abstract
Society has entered an age where technology is increasingly used as a primary or initial means of communication. Alongside these communications, there is an increase in disclosure of gender pronouns included in different online formats, such as email signatures. Therefore, it is important to assess what assumptions and thoughts are made about the people who choose to include gender pronouns. This may be especially crucial in business settings where biases can impact workplace relationships and decisions. Specifically, this study aims to address how email recipients might categorize an email sender who discloses gender pronouns. We investigate these categorizations in terms of age, political affiliation, gender identity, and sexual orientation. In addition, we investigate how the recipient might perceive the sender’s levels of warmth, competence, status, and competition. Prior research regarding the use of gender pronouns mainly details why people choose to include pronouns or how a recipient perceives the sender's intentions by including pronouns. Our interests lie in the judgments and assumptions that are made by the recipient based on a sender's inclusion of pronouns. Using a mock work email sent by a sender with a gender neutral name, participants are asked to make assumptions about the sender of the email. Subjects will randomly receive one of four email options, each only varying in the type of pronoun used in the email signature (he/him/his, she/her/hers, they/them/theirs, or no pronouns included). Findings are summarized and discussed along with limitations and future research implications.