John Milton Adams

The complex interplay between semantics and grammar in impression formation.

We sought to bridge findings showing that (a) describing a persons behavior with the perfective verb aspect (did), compared to the imperfective aspect (was doing), increases processing of semantic knowledge unrelated to the targets action such as stereotypes and (b) an increased recognition of stereotypical thoughts often promotes a judgment correction for the stereotypes. We hypothesized an interplay between grammar (verb conjugation) and semantic information (gender) in impression-formation. Participants read a resume, attributed to a male or female, for a traditionally masculine job. When the resume was written in the imperfective, people rated a male (vs. female) more positively. When the resume was in the perfective, this pattern reversed. Only these latter effects of gender were influenced by cognitive load. Further, people more quickly indicated the applicants gender in the perfective condition, suggesting an enhanced focus on gender during processing.

“It’s Complicated”—Sex Differences in Perceptions of Cross-Sex Friendships

ABSTRACT Surprisingly, little is known about how a person’s sex relates to beliefs about cross-sex friendships. In this study, participants completed a survey in which they provided separate estimates for the percentage of cross-sex friendships that contained secret “female-on-male” and “male-on female” sexual interest, indicated their optimism in the idea that males and females could be “just friends,” and reported their comfort with their partner forming a cross-sex friendship. Males were just as optimistic as females about the possibility and indicated similar levels of discomfort in response to imagining their partner entering into a cross-sex friendship. Furthermore, males did not provide higher estimates of sexual interest in cross-sex friendships compared to females. Instead, a more nuanced pattern emerged. Males (vs. females) provided higher estimates of male-to-female sexual interest, but females (vs. males) provided higher estimates of female-to-male sexual interest.