The role of language in decision-making

Gender-category knowledge is highly embodied (Slepian et al., 2011) and grammatical gender can reinforce stereotypical associations between gendered nouns and their referents (Sato & Athanasopoulos, 2018; Mecit et al., 2022). Here, we assess the effect of grammatical gender on decision-making within a legal context. In Greek, coronavirus is masculine and the resulting illness COVID-19 feminine, conforming to the grammatical gender of the terms ‘virus’ and ‘illness’ respectively. However, in natural usage the term COVID-19 occurs within both masculine and feminine grammatical contexts. We investigated whether the application of grammatical gender on noun phrases containing ‘COVID-19’ affects how legal experts and lay people apply punitive measures on breaches of laws aimed at ameliorating the spread. Results showed that harsher punishments were applied in grammatically masculine than in grammatically feminine contexts. However, this was modulated by the severity of the legal breach and the participant’s legal expertise. These findings speak to a broader view of language-cognition interactions as highly dynamic and flexible (Casasanto & Lupyan, 2015), shaped by situational demands and the individual’s experiential history (Athanasopoulos et al., 2026).

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