Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 2020
  • Article
  • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Gender Differences in Communicative Abstraction

By: Priyanka D. Joshi, Cheryl J. Wakslak, Gil Appel and Laura Huang
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Drawing on construal level theory, which suggests that experiencing a communicative audience as proximal rather than distal leads speakers to frame messages more concretely, we examine gender difference in linguistic abstraction. In a meta-analysis of prior studies examining the effects of distance on communication, we find that women communicate more concretely than men when an audience is described as being psychologically close. These gender differences in linguistic abstraction are eliminated when speakers consider an audience whose distance has been made salient (Study 1). In studies that follow, we examine gender difference in linguistic abstraction in contexts where the nature of the audience is not specified. Across a written experimental context (Study 2), a large corpus of online blog posts (Study 3), and the real-world speech of congressmen and congresswomen (Study 4), we find that men speak more abstractly than women. These gender difference in speech abstraction continue to emerge when subjective feelings of power are experimentally manipulated (Study 5). We believe that gender differences in linguistic abstraction are the result of several interrelated processes—including but not limited to social network size and homogeneity, communication motives involving seeking proximity or distance, perceptions of audience homogeneity and distance, as well as experience of power. In Study 6, we find preliminary support for mediation of gender differences in linguistic abstraction by women’s tendency to interact in small social networks. We discuss implications of these gender differences in communicative abstraction for existing theory and provide suggestions for future research.

Keywords

Construal Level Theory; Psychological Distance; Gender; Communication; Leadership

Citation

Joshi, Priyanka D., Cheryl J. Wakslak, Gil Appel, and Laura Huang. "Gender Differences in Communicative Abstraction." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 118, no. 3 (March 2020): 417–435.
  • Find it at Harvard

More from the Authors

    • July 2022
    • Faculty Research

    TravelBank (B): Finalizing the U.S. Bank Acquisition

    By: Laura Huang and Katie LaMattina
    • July 2022
    • Faculty Research

    TravelBank

    By: Laura Huang
    • July 2022
    • Faculty Research

    TravelBank

    By: Laura Huang and Katharine LaMattina
More from the Authors
  • TravelBank (B): Finalizing the U.S. Bank Acquisition By: Laura Huang and Katie LaMattina
  • TravelBank By: Laura Huang
  • TravelBank By: Laura Huang and Katharine LaMattina
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College