The role of gender in linguistic references to emotive states

Abstract

Various aspects of linguistic references to emotive states were compared for male and female speakers. These included the amount, valence, time frame, experiences and source of reference to emotions. Generally, males and females talked equally about emotions, though in opposite‐sex dyads males used more affect words and males also used more affect words to talk about their own emotions than did females. The results contradicted previous findings. Methodological and research implications of this contradiction are discussed. The effect of audience sex was also examined. Males talked more about emotions when the audience was female, while females did not vary their emotional expressiveness on the basis of audience sex.