Masculine generic pronouns as a gender cue in generic statements

An eye-tracking experiment was conducted with speakers of Dutch (N = 84, 36 male), a language that falls between grammatical and natural-gender languages. We tested whether masculine generic pronoun causes male bias when used in statements—that is, the absence specific referent. two types statements by varying conceptual number, hypothesizing zijn “his” more likely to cause conceptually singular than plural antecedent (e.g., Someone (conceptually singular)/Everyone plural) perfect pitch can tune his instrument quickly). found participants exhibit but only. Female showed no signs bias. The results show generically intended leads contexts this further depends on participant gender.