Gendered language and liking: Interactions of likeability, gender, and linguistic content in computer-mediated dyadic conversations

Abstract

We investigate how gender affects social interaction outcomes, and to what extent gendered language mediates the association between gender and interpersonal liking. From a multimodal corpus of dialogue interactions in which participants rated and estimated likeability (CANDOR), we use inferential statistical analyses to identify expressions associated with gender, likeability, and the liking gap, the difference between how much an interlocutor likes another and how liked interlocutors imagine they are. Results reveal a Dunning Kruger effect of likeability, as well as evidence that an interaction of gender and liking is partly explained by gendered language independent of speaker gender. These findings bridge and expand previous work on liking, gender attitudes, gendered language, and likeable language. Our results suggest that aspects of stereotypically feminine language can enhance likeability regardless of the speaker’s gender identity.