The Effect of Third-person Pronoun Gender on Story World Absorption In Narrative Fiction

Abstract

In previous studies personal pronouns have been shown to influence story world absorption. The impact of gendered personal pronouns on story world absorption and the difference between males and females in their reaction to these pronouns, had not yet been studied. This study tests the hypothesis whether females and males will have higher attention scores when reading a fictional narrative using 3rd-person pronouns of their own gender. Females and males read a story using 1st-person pronouns, 3rd-person male pronouns and 3rd-person female pronouns referring to the protagonist and rated this using a self-report scale for story world absorption. Results indicated that most subcomponents of story world absorption are affected by gendered pronouns, especially in females. Although these results hold no statistical significance, they underscore the importance of more research on the effects of gender in the field of language processing and its effects on narrative experience.