Do norm-based appeals affect the acceptance of the singular use of they/them pronouns?

Abstract

The singular use of they/them pronouns to refer to gender-nonconforming persons is growingly accepted grammar in the English language. Yet Americans’ comfort and willingness to use gender-neutral pronouns are divided along partisan lines. It is important to better understand potential ways to influence people’s acceptance with the use of gender-neutral pronouns given the psychological harm that misgendering a person can induce. In this paper, we report the results from a pre-registered survey experiment on a large and nationally representative sample in the U.S. to investigate how normative messages encouraging the use of they/them pronouns influences people’s comfort using gender-neutral pronouns and willingness to state their personal pronouns. We also examine the downstream effects of these messages on expressions of tolerance/prejudice towards people who identify as transgender. We find, counter to our hypotheses, that normative messages do not depolarize the public and can sometimes backfire and increase existing divisions, largely due to shifts observed among Republicans, independents, and men.