Gender-Inclusive Language Shapes News Evaluations: An Experimental Study of the Effects on Perceived Credibility, Reactance, and Media Skepticism among News Users

Gender-inclusive language (GIL) is increasingly used in journalism in many countries worldwide, yet its effects on news evaluations are largely unexplored. We conducted a preregistered online experiment with a sample representative of the adult German population (N = 812), manipulating linguistic form in two news articles on topics unrelated to gender: masculine-only form (e.g., “Bürger”), pair form (e.g., “Bürger und Bürgerinnen”), or star form (“Bürger*innen”). We expected that, depending on their attitude toward GIL, people would use GIL as a positive or negative credibility cue. Furthermore, as opponents tend to be deeply involved in the social conflict surrounding GIL, we expected GIL to trigger reactance and media skepticism among this group. Our findings revealed that the star form slightly influenced credibility, depending on attitude congruence. In addition, it triggered affective but not cognitive reactance among opponents and, unexpectedly, reduced their media skepticism. The pair form had no impact, likely because it is more common and less ideologically loaded. Theoretically, these results extend previous research on trust in journalism by suggesting that small linguistic cues indicating gender inclusivity can shape people’s evaluations of news articles.