She/He/They: Investigating the Social Cognitive Impact of Pronoun Disclosure

Abstract

Activists and organizations increasingly recommend that people share their pronouns when introducing themselves (e.g., I’m Jane; I use she/her pronouns), which has yielded both positive and negative interpersonal outcomes. Thus, to clarify and extend our existing understanding, I examined the impact of pronoun disclosure (compared to non-disclosure) on person perception in social contexts that independently manipulated the normativity (Study 1) and authenticity (Study 2) of the behaviour. In Study 1, pronoun disclosure was associated with greater perceptions of warmth, and people were seen as warmer and more competent in social contexts where pronoun sharing was normative. However, the normativity of pronoun sharing moderated perceptions of allyship and external motivation such that particularly in normative contexts, people who chose not to share their pronouns were rated low in allyship and external motivation. In Study 2, pronoun disclosure and ally behaviours were associated with greater perceptions of warmth. Additionally, although previous ally behaviours were associated with greater perceptions of competence, disclosing they/them (relative to she/her) pronouns had negative consequences on perceptions of competence. Finally, the ally behaviour of the focal person moderated perceptions such that particularly people who engaged in anti-ally behaviours and did not share their pronouns were rated low in allyship and external motivation. In sum, pronoun sharing done regardless of the normativity of the behaviour and done authentically had positive interpersonal consequences. In contrast, inauthentic pronoun sharing did not have strong interpersonal impacts (positive or negative). However, violating a situational norm by not sharing pronouns in normative contexts and engaging in authentic non-disclosure had negative interpersonal outcomes. Accordingly, positive interpersonal impacts may be used to encourage the (authentic) practice of pronoun sharing across (non)normative contexts.