Sociolinguistics

Introduction and Background

At UCLA, Bruinwalk has become a popular platform where students share their experiences, often influencing others’ decisions on which professors or classes to take. However, while these reviews may seem like casual reflections, they can also reveal underlying biases, including gender stereotypes that shape how students describe their professors. Past research has shown that female professors are often judged more on their likeability, warmth, and personality, while male professors are often judged on their authority and expertise (Mitchell & Martin, 2018). Although much of this research focuses on formal evaluations, less is known about whether these same patterns show up in online, informal reviews where students write anonymously. Our study addresses that gap by examining whether students use more emotionally charged language when reviewing female STEM professors compared to male professors on Bruinwalk. By analyzing hyper-emotional language, tone, and word choice, we aim to better understand how gendered assumptions may still shape students’ perceptions, even when reviewers are not directly asked to evaluate gender.  Our research will attempt to identify if language bias, rooted in gender stereotypes, affects how UCLA students evaluate instructors. Furthermore, we are curious to explore whether students tend to leave more emotionally charged reviews for female professors due to social norms that expect women to be more nurturing or emotionally expressive. This idea is present in a study by Basow et al. (2005), where researchers concluded that gender bias may manifest in academic contexts and that stereotypes, particularly for female professors often shape student perceptions.

Methods

Our study examined how the gender of professors influences the types of language used in student reviews, with a specific focus on hyper-emotional language. According to Hinojosa et al. (2019), hyper-emotional language includes emotionally charged adjectives, overstatements, and highly subjective expressions and we use this same definition in our survey.The analysis aimed to determine whether students are more likely to use emotionally charged positive or negative language when reviewing female STEM professors compared to male professors on Bruinwalk, a rating platform used by UCLA students. We randomly selected a total of five female and five male professors from various STEM fields. For each professor, one student review was chosen using a random number generator, resulting in ten reviews for analysis in our survey. 

Before including the reviews in our survey, we removed all gender identifying terms, such as pronouns and names to ensure anonymity and reduce any form of bias. This allowed participants to make judgements based only on the language used in each review. We then created a survey using the reviews and collected responses from 33 participants.Each participant answered three questions for each review, (1) rating the emotional level using a labeled 5-point Likert-type scale, following the methodology of Basow et al. (2006),ranging from “no emotion” to “most emotion,” (2) they identified the perceived gender of the professor based on the review, and (3) they labeled the review as either positive or negative. 

The observable communication and language aspects central to our study were word choice, tone, and emotional intensity. Reviews varied in their placement on the emotional scale, with some displaying stronger emotionality than others. Specific word choices often indicated whether a review was positive or negative, but the analysis also aimed to determine whether such language influenced perceptions of the professor’s gender. Beyond word choice, the tone of the review could shape participants’ impressions of the professor, potentially revealing underlying gender associations. This approach allowed us to compare how students interpreted emotional tone in reviews and whether certain linguistic patterns led them to associate a review with a specific gender.

The observable communication and language aspects central to our study were word choice, tone, and emotional intensity. Reviews varied in their placement on the emotional scale, with some displaying stronger emotionality than others. Specific word choices often indicated whether a review was positive or negative, but the analysis also aimed to determine whether such language influenced perceptions of the professor’s gender. Beyond word choice, the tone of the review could shape participants’ impressions of the professor, potentially revealing underlying gender associations. This approach allowed us to compare how students interpreted emotional tone in reviews and whether certain linguistic patterns led them to associate a review with a specific gender.

Results and Analysis

Emotionality vs. Gender:

Our analysis of emotionality in Bruinwalk reviews yielded results that slightly differed from our initial hypothesis. We had expected that reviewers would associate heightened emotional language more frequently with female professors. However, among reviews rated with the highest emotionality scores (4s and 5s), the distribution of gender assumptions were nearly even, as female professors were guessed 51.5% of the time and male professors at 50.9%. Within this sample, Figure one suggests that students do not appear to strongly associate either gender with more emotional reviews, at least in terms of direct emotional language. 

Figure one

Figure two

Positive and Negative vs. Gender:

In contrast, we observed more distinct gender patterns when analyzing the tone of the reviews, specifically whether they were perceived as positive or negative. As reflected in Figure two, Reviews that were interpreted as positive were associated with female professors 73% of the time, while only 26% were attributed to a male professor. Conversely, when reviews were perceived as negative, 43% guessed the professor to be female, and 56% guessed the professor to be male. Within our sample, these findings indicate a notable bias in how students associate gender with sentiment. As reflected by Figures three and four, a review written about a male professor was interpreted as positive by 93.9% of participants, yet 81.8% of them still assumed the professor was a woman. This pattern may suggest a strong link between positivity and femininity in students’ perceptions of reviews, as this trend remains fairly consistent throughout our data.

Figure three

Figure four

Guessing of Professor’s Gender: Lastly, we found that students were able to correctly guess the professor’s gender approximately 60% of the time. While slightly better than chance, this accuracy rate was lower than we had expected. Therefore, this indicates that while students may make gendered assumptions based on emotionality or tone, they are not consistent at accurately identifying a professor’s gender solely from written reviews.

Discussion and Conclusion

Our research teaches us how respondents’ perceptions of student reviews of professors and professor gender reflect gendered social and gender norms. Although this is a sample, we cannot assume that our findings are generalizable; our results suggest that the perceived sentiment by respondents in reviews affects gender perception, reinforcing gendered cultural and social norms. Women are expected to be warm, kind, and nurturing; therefore, respondents associated positive reviews with women. On the other hand, men are linked to criticism, assertiveness, and harshness, so respondents associated negative reviews with male professors. Our research suggests that gendered expectations influenced the perceived gender of the professor. Moreover, our research reveals that participants are unable to accurately identify the gender of the professor. This shows us that gender norms are not enough to assume gender. Lastly, our research suggests that emotionality within reviews is not gendered. Emotional language was used to describe female or male professors alike, and is not an indicator of professor gender.

Bruinwalk reviews are often taken into consideration by students to determine whether or not they should take a class. Student reviews are often littered with biases and have the ability to affect a professor’s reputation, even if the review is not representative of their actual teaching methods. Our research suggests that ratings may be born out of professors failing to meet students’ ideas of what their gender roles should be. In the future, we could research the intent behind students leaving reviews on Bruinwalk. Moreover, from research by JoAnn Miller and Marilyn Chamberlain (2000), we see that students have different perceptions of female and male professors and thereby different expectations. Expanding on Miller and Chamberlain’s research and using some of the data we have found in our research, we could expand on how perceptions of professors, based on their gender, shape student reviews.

Relevant Information:

In, “The Effects of Gendered Occupational Roles on Men’s and Women’s Workplace Authority,” by Jim Logan, dives deeper into the analysis of how gendered expectations can affect men and women’s authority in the workplace. After observing the emotionality of the language in BruinWalk reviews and how they seem to stem from the professor’s gender expectations, it is interesting to see how the same expectations can affect their authority.

In “Emotional Expression and Gender: How Men and Women Differ in Showing Emotions,” the article describes how the expressions of emotion are taught at a young age and how they come to shape our own expectations of who should express certain types of emotions. The article explores how we attribute certain emotions to specific genders, creating and enforcing gender roles.

References

Basow, S. A., & Montgomery, S. (2005). Student ratings and professor self-ratings of college teaching: Effects of gender and Divisional Affiliation. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 18(2), 91–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11092-006-9001-8 

Basow, S. A., Phelan, J. E., & Capotosto, L. (2006). Gender Patterns in College Students’ Choices of Their Best and Worst Professors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 30(1), 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2006.00259.x (Original work published 2006)

Hinojosa, J. A., E. M. Moreno, and P. Ferré. “Affective Neurolinguistics: Towards a Framework for Reconciling Language and Emotion.” Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 35, no. 7 (June 5, 2019): 813–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2019.1620957.

Miller, J., & Chamberlin, M. (2000). Women Are Teachers, Men Are Professors: A Study of Student Perceptions. Teaching Sociology, 28(4), 283–298. https://doi.org/10.2307/1318580

Mitchell, K. M. W., & Martin, J. (2018). Gender Bias in Student Evaluations. PS: Political Science & Politics, 51(3), 648–652. Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909651800001X.

Introduction and background

Breakups are rarely easy conversations, and how we communicate during them can profoundly shape the emotional outcome for both partners. Yet while much attention has been given to how relationships form, less is known about how they end and the role that communication plays in that process. In particular, gendered patterns in communication may shape how people express emotions, manage conflict, and seek closure when ending a relationship. Are women more likely to communicate openly and directly during a breakup, perhaps choosing a thoughtful conversation or in-person dialogue? And are men more likely to lean on indirect methods like ghosting or a quick text to avoid confrontations? Based on prior research and our observations, we hypothesized that these gendered tendencies would still appear among young adults today, even in casual dating and digital contexts. Prior research suggests that gendered socialization continues to shape how people manage difficult conversations. Women tend to report higher emotional expressivity and are more likely to value open communication (Ubando, 2026), while men often internalize norms that discourage emotional vulnerability (Cinardo, 2011; Drury, 1999). However, much of this work has focused on conflict within relationships rather than the moment of actually ending it. Our project seeks to fill this gap by exploring how gender influences the communication strategies on how adults choose when ending romantic relationships, especially in today’s digital landscape. Through this research, we hope to shape modern parting practices and how greater awareness of these patterns could foster healthier, more empathetic endings to relationships.

Methods

For our method, we created a Google form survey with 35 individuals between the ages of 18 and 25, and we presented our participants with four different hypothetical break-up scenarios, where each one varied by the length of the relationship. We proposed two hypothetical questions where participants would answer based on their preferred communication style if they were in a short-term relationship. Furthermore, we asked two hypothetical scenarios based on long-term relationships and what their communication style would be. The modes of communication we provided for the answers were digital versus in-person. According to “Gender and Conflict in Long-Term Romantic Relationship,” Hamlin conveys that “…another interesting component to improve future research includes examining how length of relationship impacts relational conflict and the type of conflict style exhibited in couples” (Hamlin, 2018). His assertion aligned with our method and findings that our goal in providing hypothetical scenarios was to elicit the modes of communication our participants would prefer when they were faced with relationship termination, whether it was short-term or long-term. Through this, we analyzed the observable elements of communication, whether that directness versus indirectness (ghosting, short messages, long messages, or phone calls) and their tone, whether they were more likely to be sympathetic with their partner or more apathetic. Through analyzing Ogolsky’s research he conducted on the the progression of college student romantic relationship, he found that “young adult relationships in the 21st century are deemed as overwhelmingly casual, with the termination of the relationship typically appearing at the 4th stage of dating labeled where conflict or obstacles either end or strengthen the relationship” (Ogolsky et al., 2025). This was useful for my group and me to examine more closely self-behavior and whether it was more common for a certain gender to be more indirect and less open in their communication style. Before presenting our hypothetical scenarios, we also asked our participants to reflect on their most recent relationship, specifically how it ended, who ended the relationship, and the form of communication used for the termination. We were able to compare whether their communication styles in their most recent relationship were similar or different from their responses in the hypothetical scenarios. Through using this method, we were able to analyze the observable elements of communication styles and analyze the differences and patterns across genders when it came to preferred communication styles in the modern dating world.

Results and Analysis

After conducting our survey, we found that our results were consistent with our predictions. It is a matter of fact – women are typically more emotional and expressive when it comes to relationship termination than men are. In our survey, one of the first questions participants answered was: How would you describe your communication style during the breakup? (In regards to their most recent breakup). Interestingly, 66% of women said they were direct and emotionally expressive, and only 11% reported being direct in their communication but emotionally restrained. Contrastingly, only 29% of men reported being direct and emotionally expressive, reporting much higher levels of emotional restraint at 41%. This fascinating difference truly illustrates a contrast in not only real-life communication but in personal approaches to termination. Further into our survey, we presented our participants with several example scenarios, two regarding in-person breakups and two regarding digital breakups. We asked them how they would react in that situation. Our short-term, in-person breakup scenario interestingly presented data contradicting our overarching argument. Here, we found that 29% (5 men) of male respondents would console their partner while 47% (8 men) would present neutral and indifferent body language. On the other hand, only 5 women also reported that they would console their partner, while an overwhelming 11 women said they would be neutral and indifferent. This goes against what we believed – illustrating that the men are more emotionally comforting when it comes to short term relationship termination. It is notable, however, that more men (4) reported showing discomfort in the scenario while only 2 women reported the same. When it comes to long term relationship termination in person, results differ as we had expected. Females showed the highest amount of consoling body language (16 women), while only 12 men reported the same. Men reported being neutral and different more frequently at 3 individuals, yet only 1 woman said the same. Such results are consistent with the findings of an article titled Language and Power in Politics. The article presents a graph which illustrates gender communicative structures – where women are typically empathetic, use emotional references, and use softened statements (Thomas et al., 2019). Men, on the other hand, tend to display solutions, use accusatory speech, and be angry (Thomas et al., 2019). Our results are consistent with these findings – and we can see that, overall, women tend to be more emotionally expressive on the basis of empathy and care than men.

Discussion and conclusions

Exposing levels of emotional expressivity and styles of communication when parting ways can reveal a lot about the way society has influenced us, especially in the way we succumb to traditional gender norms and stereotypes. A higher percentage of women self-reported that they would have open body language and console their partner regardless of relationship length, correlating to the higher levels of males self-reporting emotional restraint in past breakups. Displaying these patterns in extent of closure and vulnerability, both in real-life experiences from prior relationships and predicting behavior in future ones, can reveal how connected gender is to the degree of emotion presented in time of conflict.  In connection to a larger phenomenon, particularly gender norms, men are stereotypically perceived as more indirect, cold, and distant in conflict. In contrast, women are often classified as more elaborate, empathetic, and detailed. After analyzing the data, it appears to mirror underlying notions of masculinity among men as they demonstrated much higher levels of emotional restraint. This not only influences the nature of the relationship itself, but also the ways in which women and men begin to reinforce distinct emotional languages as a result of gendered expectations. After investigating the impact of social conditioning in conforming to gender stereotypes when parting ways, it is important to encourage healthier methods of termination that speak more closely to the identity and desire of the individual rather than to obey the norms that police them.

Cross-References: Watch this to uncover hear about 5 differences in communication between men and women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAah5Lgx6o

This clip can provide guidance on closure after a breakup:

References

Cinardo, J. (2011). Male and Female differences in communicating conflict (Honors thesis, Coastal Carolina University). Digital Commons at Coastal Carolina University.

Hamlin, E. (2018). Gender and Conflict in Long-Term Romantic Relationships. Stars, 23-35. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7045&context=etd

Ogolsky, B. G., Dobson, K., Rivas‐Koehl, M., Kawas, G., & Hardesty, J. L. (2025). The progression of college student romantic relationship development: Stability and change over 10 years. Personal Relationships: Journal of the International Association for Relationship Research. https://doi.org/10.1111/pere.12590

Thomas, S., Greene, E., Brewer, C., Dela Cruz, J. (2019). Language and Power in Politics: A Gender Stereotype Game. Languaged Life. https://languagedlife.ucla.edu/language-and-identity/language-and-power-in-politics-a-gender-stereotype-game/

Ubando, M. (2016). Gender differences in intimacy, emotional expressivity, and relationship satisfaction. Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research, 4(1), Article 13. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/pjcr/vol4/iss1/13

Introduction and Background

Across digital spaces, content creators strive to present themselves effectively in various contexts. Over the past decade, the rise of young female vloggers has transformed YouTube from a video-sharing platform into a complex stage for influencer culture. These creators document life. Yet, they also navigate the pressures of visibility and social norms in a highly curated world. As the YouTuber phenomenon continues to grow, the importance of understanding how people perform their online identity is ever essential.

Previous research by Abdul Razak (2025) has focused on influencers’ linguistic patterns, such as the use of the word “like.” Other studies have concentrated on influencer actions (e.g., taking selfies) (Adidin, 2016). However, there is a limited understanding of how gestures overall may change based on context for female-identifying content creators. Drawing on Goffman’s (1959) concept of impression management, this project considers how vloggers may act as performers on a digital stage. Abidin’s (2016) theory of subversive frivolity reframes seemingly lighthearted content as sites of resistance, where femininity becomes a tool for navigating digital labor. Hence, this existing literature further legitimizes the inherent merits of our research focused on shifts across content by this group of young, female YouTubers who are often dismissed.

This study examines how undergraduate female YouTubers utilize nonverbal cues in their casual versus serious videos. This examination seeks to contradict the perception of this group as one-dimensional and hypothesizes that our sample changes their gestures to fit the situation — more expressiveness (a higher amount of hand gestures and more relaxed posture, head movements, and hand openness) in casual videos and less in serious ones.

Methods

We began our study by observing five female YouTubers based on their popularity, as we were interested in analyzing videos with high admiration. We noted creators who had verified statuses, a strong following, and a high number of views. We focused mainly on those with over ten thousand subscribers, which then led to a high viewer count on the videos we chose. Our selection included twenty videos total, with two casual and two serious videos per creator. This came out to four videos for each of the five creators. Each one was determined as casual if it involved low social or personal stakes, like “a day in the life,” while serious videos included high social or academic stakes, such as career planning. We randomly selected a five-minute clip to observe from each one with an online number generator (numbergenerator.org), to remove any sort of bias. We recorded data when the YouTuber had their face visible on the screen and spoke to the audience. With each clip, we examined multiple gesture categories due to their associations with expressiveness. These gestures were adaptors, illustrators, emblems, posture, hand openness, and head movements.

We then coded each clip by counting the raw numbers of illustrators, adaptors, and emblems we observed per clip. Illustrators are gestures that send a message, like pointing or placing a hand on your chest, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Example of Illustrator from Lihn Troung’s “A week in my life: college finals & christmas in the city // vlog 007”

Adaptors, on the other hand, involve self-touching behaviors like scratching or rubbing and are typically unconscious responses to adapt to one’s environment (Kelmaganbetova et al., 2023). Figure 2 shows an example of an adaptor from Lihn Troung’s videos where she tucks her hair behind her ear.

Figure 2: Example of Adaptor from Lihn Troung’s “A week in my life: college finals & christmas in the city // vlog 007”

Emblems are substitutes for words or phrases in communication, like the peace sign shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Example of Emblem from Lihn Troung’s “A week in my life: college finals & christmas in the city // vlog 007”

Our next step was to further observe and calculate each video’s expressiveness. We did this in terms of the creators’ posture, hand openness, and head movements throughout the videos. To code this step, we utilized a Likert scale to determine the levels of each gesture displayed by the creator. For instance, a video with relaxed posture would have a rating of 1 on the Likert scale, while a rating of 5 would indicate formal levels of posture throughout the video. The same was for hand openness where a 1 meant closed hand positions, and a 5 meant open. High levels of head movement received a rating of 5, while still head movements received a 1. We performed interrater testing as well, in order to ensure overall consistent results. This testing measured consistency by having more than one group member collect the data.

Results and Analysis

The data set partially lined up with our prediction. Our group’s hypothesis was that young women in undergraduate programs would have a significant difference in gestures between serious and casual content. Our data demonstrated some differences between serious and casual contents’ data. However, there seemed to be more variance between the person that had uploaded the videos themselves versus their actual content type. Something we noticed was that postures would be more “correct” or upright in serious videos in general. Meanwhile, casual videos often had slouchier or relaxed posture. The frames were another factor that typically depended on the type of video that was being seen. For example, shoulders up was the frame that was seen in serious videos. On the other hand, videos that were more casual typically had a less consistent frame. Throughout the videos there was also a difference between different creators. Lihn Truong was the only creator that we viewed that fit the prediction that nine or more illustrators would be visible in casual content. Helaine Zhao and Studyquill had less gestures when filming serious content. Some of the creators kept many of their video styles pretty consistently. Mikayla Mags would be an example of a creator that had high illustrators across video types. Mags also kept a similar posture throughout her videos. Other things that we noticed among videos were that some creators had lower gestures on the Likert scale despite a difference in content type. Lillian Zhang kept a formal style of video content and personality throughout. The patterns observed demonstrate how tone and individual creators overall have more variety rather than their content type. It can be connected to sociological themes such as gender and women trying to be perceived as likable by other people due to societal expectations to be kind and nurturing. This can potentially come across differently depending on the content creator and what they perceive to be according to standard. It is also important to note that this may be a subconscious decision to do so.

Figure 4 shows the gesture counts calculated for Lihn Troung’s videos, along with the Likert scale data for each one. As shown in her casual holiday vlog, she used 10 illustrators, 5 adaptors, and 4 emblems. We can see that her serious content showed more restrained posture, fewer gestures, and closed body language. For more detailed counts and results, see the data table linked at the bottom of this post.

Figure 4: Results from Lihn Troung’s Videos (Raw Counts and Likert Scale)

Video Title	YouTuber	Vlog type	Illustrators	Adaptors	Emblems	Posture	Hand Openness	Head Movements
A week in my life: college finals & christmas in the city // vlog 007	Lihn Troung	Casual	10	5	4	5	5	5
another productive day in my life studying, coffee omakase, dance practice, & senior year memories	Lihn Troung	Casual	8	1	3	4	4	4
why you need hobbies in 2024 // rediscovering my hobbies as a burned out college student	Lihn Troung	Serious	6	1	3	2	4	5
study with me for college finals (pomodoro method)	Lihn Troung	Serious	6	4	7	2	2	1

Regarding other overall trends, illustrators were the most frequently counted gesture. Casual vlogs showed higher amounts of adaptors and emblems; however illustrators actually appeared more frequently in serious videos. Yet, serious vlogs showed fewer hand gestures as depicted in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Relationship between Gesture Counts of Casual vs. Serious Videos

X-axis: Nonverbal Gesture

Y-axis: Number of Counts

Examining the data from the Likert scale included in Figure 6, casual videos had an average score of 4.4 for head movements while serious videos scored an average of 4.8, depicted variation in relaxed and expressive behavior. However, hand openness remained consistent across topics, contradicting part of our original hypothesis which predicted that hand openness would be more prevalent in casual content.

Figure 6: Average Ratings of Expressiveness using Likert Scale (1-5)

X-axis: Expressive Gesture

Y-axis: Rating

Thus, while variation occurred between YouTubers, with some like Linh Troung adhering to our hypothesis closely while others like Makayla Mags presented some contrasting data, overall, a distinction in gestures between causal versus serious content is visible.

Discussion and Conclusion

Overall, YouTubers in casual vlogs displayed more expressive behaviors — more adaptors and emblems, relaxed posture, and head movements. In contrast, serious vlogs tended to feature more restrained gestures yet a higher number of illustrators. Although these patterns largely supported our hypothesis and the results from previous literature, individual variation between vloggers and the counts for illustrators suggests the benefits of a further study.

Our sample size of five female undergraduate YouTubers is one limitation of our study. While this small group allowed for detailed coding, it curbs the generalizability of our results. Furthermore, although the structured coding scheme and interrater testing helped mitigate bias, gesture analysis inherently involves some degree of interpretation. Distinguishing between an illustrator and an adaptor can be context-dependent. Without direct input from the creators themselves, interpretations largely remain speculative — especially regarding intentionality. It is also uncertain how gender specifically shapes these behaviors. Future research could compare how gestures differ between a sample of male versus female YouTubers.

Although additional research may help us derive more concrete overall conclusions about our population, our study offers several benefits to the study of interpersonal communication and societal understanding of internet culture. Our research challenges stereotypes about female influencers by showcasing their context-sensitive nonverbal use. The shift in physical behavior depending on the topic can suggest acute awareness of audience expectations. These patterns contribute to our broader understanding of impression management as gestures take on a layered meaning. The openness adopted in casual vlogs reflects a negotiation of credibility. In serious videos, reducing gesturing and maintaining an upright posture aligns with traditional markers of authority, while in casual contexts, animated movement may serve to build rapport and relatability (Smith, 2017). Gestures become a coded method of exploring platform visibility, societal norms, and professional aspirations.

The findings point to a broader takeaway — nonverbal communication is a vital aspect of digital self-presentation. Although these gestures may be subtle, they wield significant implications for how we understand identity, labor, and gender in the age of influencers.

EXTENDED DATA TABLE + COUNTS

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RnSxkMVnGdnex0hzXd5Kp_PWCNb36AltPVLHQpakhfs/edit?usp=sharing

RECOMMENDED READING/VIEWING (RELEVANT INFO)

• https://youtu.be/ZzEOs9bVpZQ?si=g0jPMMVomBFOFCV6
• https://languagedlife.ucla.edu/sociolinguistics/the-linguistic-switcheroo-navigating-style-shifts-in-college-discourse/
• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1568341/full
• https://www.talkabouttalk.com/gender-differences-in-communication-ep-141/

REFERENCES

Abdul Razak, N. (2025). The use of slang by Gen Z female influencers on Instagram and Twitter (X). International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 9(4), 1910–1917. https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/the-use-of-slang-by-gen-z-female-influencers-on-instagram-and-twitter-x/

Abidin, C. (2016). “Aren’t these just young, rich women doing vain things online?”: Influencer selfies as subversive frivolity. Social Media + Society, 2(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305116641342

Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Anchor Books. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/presentationofs00goff

Kelmaganbetova, A., Mazhitayeva, S., Ayazbayeva, B., Khamzina, G., Ramazanova, Z., Rahymberlina, S., & Kadyrov, Z. (2023). The role of gestures in communication. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 13(10), 2506–2513. https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1310.09

Number Generator. (n.d.). NumberGenerator.org. Retrieved June 10, 2025, from https://numbergenerator.org (https://numbergenerator.org/)

Smith, H. J., & Neff, M. (2017). Understanding the impact of animated gesture performance on personality perceptions. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 36(4), Article 128. https://doi.org/10.1145/3072959.3073697

Introduction and Background

i) “Hey, my name’s Julian Stassi and I’m 1000% committed to UCLA! I’m from Sacramento, and majoring in Business-Economics. I love watching football, hanging with friends, and I’m a huge foodie. I’m looking for a roommate and planning to rush in the fall, so bang my line!”

These exact messages flood the UCLA Class Instagram page every single year. This is a space where thousands of recently admitted students introduce themselves to find roommates and friends, and it is a great way for students to start shaping their college identity before ever arriving on campus. These posts are more than just sharing majors or hometowns; they’re filled with unique sets of carefully chosen language that says something about how students want to be seen.

ii) These personal bios are filled with informal language, which makes them feel ​​personal and distinctive. While others can be more straightforward and formal. This made us question: Does gender influence tone or slang? How are North Campus majors different from STEM majors? What connections could be made between these new Bruins, and what does this say about them?

iii) We then analyzed the first 200 posts from the official UCLA 2029 account and closely looked at the diverse use of slang, grammar, and emoji use, and how language varies across gender, major, and location. Our project explores how even small stylistic and language choices reflect deeper identity performances and social positioning within online spaces. These posts are not just about introductions; they are shaping how students want to be perceived as they begin forming who they are on campus.

Methods

For this project, like previously mentioned, we conducted our quantitative analysis by going through the first 200 posts from the @ucla2029freshman class Instagram account – a social media account used for recruiting and engaging with incoming freshman students at UCLA – and analyzed a myriad of demographics from each post.

Our main goal from this cultivation of data was to analyze the topicof linguistic strategies used to engage prospective students and to comprehend how language choices reflect broader communicative goals in higher education and social media outreach. The method of data collection, a quantitative content analysis where we carefully recorded and studied language patterns in social media posts, focused on a 200 sample from the largerpopulation of the account and looked at gender (male/female), the opening style used (how they greet the people seeing their account, e.g., hello, hiii, hey, etc), any slang used (things like words in all caps, pls, wanna HMU, roomie, foodie, insta, etc), if there is a presence of emoji use, proper grammar and punctuation, if students listed their pronouns, if people used all lowercase or all uppercase, and their intended major (pre-med, humanities, STEM).

Since we examined different styles of speech, we also drew from the idea of language variation, which looks at how people’s language changes depending on their background, age, gender, or community involvement, as well as grammar, tone, and word choice (Bahtina, 2025).

Our data collection specifically focused on the first 200 posts chronologically available on the account at the time of data collection to ensure that we cultivated a large but manageable sample representing not only a multitude of academic disciplines but also genders, communication styles, and decisions. This approach allowed us to gather a wide variety of people at different stages of the student admission process and people from an abundance of different demographics, which helped ensure an accurate sample of the representation.

When reporting findings on gender in our study, the results were strictly based on the first 200 posts from the class account, and we did not assume a 50/50 gender split. This was because we wanted to limit any confounding variables and stay stable with our procedure and data collection, and it also revealed the prevalence of social media use and how it differs across gender.

Results and Analysis

After each group member cultivated data from the posts of the class of 2029 Instagram account we found the following findings: 43.1% of female students use emojis compared to only 32.6% of male students (Figure 2, 3), female business economic majors are 50% more likely to use slang compared to men, women are 1.8 times more likely than men to write in lowercase (Figure 1), and men in humanities adhere most strongly to formal digital norms. A key concept shown here is also the informalization of language, which posits that communication tendencies on social media tend to vary in regard to their casual and playful tone (Natsir et al., 222). This is evident in the use of emojis, lowercase letters, and slang in social media posts (Figure 1).

Figure 1

From this data we had several findings – what appears to be a casual introduction or captioning on an introductory Instagram post is often a strategic act of self-presentation that differs among each person depending on their own demographics and the image they want to illustrate to the people viewing their posts which could be future friends, roommates, classmates, or even project mates in a class setting like this. Simply put, the data shows the presence of gendered linguistic performance (Van Herk, 101). This refers to the idea that is not something we simply are but something we do, which relates to the evidence because it emphasizes the presence of linguistic performance and ways people perform. While we found relationships between gender and linguistic decisions and major and self-presentation, the relationship between gender and major was much more complex than a clear pattern.

Every individual use of emoji, lowercase letter, or slang word differs person to person (however, there are more common themes seen in some demographics than others) and demonstrates some aspect or other about a person. These posts on the Instagram account aren’t just digital information, but they have the power to reflect someone’s identity, culture, and origin. Aligning with the idea that emojis are a form of cultural expression. As Professor Junnifer Prough says, emojis clearly display layers of cultural communicative meaning, explaining that users use emojis to be understood and for belonging (Ted Talk by Freedman, 2019). When students post their introductory bios, they are engaging in a form of visual and linguistic identity making, whether they choose to or not.

Figure 2

Figure 3

These results and implications are imperative to helping illustrate how social norms shape larger themes across digital communications and reinforce the identity that language is performative even in the most casual of settings.

These students engage in what is known as “front stage” performances where they craft online personas that balance authenticity, approachability, and cultural fluency within the norms of the current contemporary society and how Gen Z acts in the current state of the social media culture. The agentive behavior is consistent with research that shows the use of social media to develop self-presented messages tailored to specific audiences, shaping their identity even before arriving on campus (DeAndrea et al., 2011).

Discussion and Conclusion

Our analysis of the UCLA Class of 2029 Instagram posts shows the language in Instagram posts as a form of digital identity construction. While captions appear to be informal, they actually reveal a choice that every single student makes in order to express themselves. They do this in order to, in some way, fit in or stand out. The use of emojis, punctuation, and slang in order to differentiate genders, majors, and regions shows that language use is made purposefully. The pattern that was most clear to us was gender-based differences in tone and formatting of the posts. Female students, when compared to male students, overwhelmingly use an informal style of using emojis, lowercase, and slang. Males, on the other hand, were more likely to have proper grammar and tone. This is clear in the research with sociolinguistics showing women often are more linguistically innovative in language to build social standing than men, who look toward status-oriented forms of communication. The difference between majors was also an interesting point where humanities students had more flexible tones and relaxed language, while STEM students were direct. This shows how different disciplines socialize students into a variety of ways in which they communicate. These posts are not only explaining who they are or what they are excited for, but they also create a performance of sorts with the things they put within the text caption of their posts. The slang, punctuation, and emojis all say something about the way in which the students desire to be seen as they matriculate.

References

Bahtina, D. (2025). 2A Variation in language. Communication 188B.

DeAndrea, David C., et al. “Serious Social Media: On the Use of Social Media for Improving
Students’ Adjustment to College.” The Internet and Higher Education, vol. 15, no. 1,
2012, pp. 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2011.05.009.

Freedman, A. (2019, April 26). The culture of emoji. ??? | Alisa Freedman | TEDxUOregon. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1QpAUhnoWE

Natsir, Nur, et al. “The Impact of Language Changes Caused by Technology and Social Media.” Language Literacy: Journal of Linguistics, Literature, and Language Teaching, vol. 7, no. 1, 2023, pp. 220–28. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9216/d49e850423f6d38e416694724061649445ec.pdf.

Van Herk, G. (2018). Gender. In What is sociolinguistics? (2nd ed., pp. 96–116). Wiley Blackwell.

Duggan, Maeve. (2013, September 12). It’s a woman’s (social media) world. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/09/12/its-a-womans-social-media-world/

Introduction and Background

Generation Z (“Gen Z”) is often seen as the generation that is constantly challenging traditional norms, especially when it comes to how they speak. Over the past couple of years, TikTok has been a cultural dominant, where slang spreads rapidly and often carries deeper meanings about identity, relationships, and culture. Prior research has explored gender differences in communication; however, they have mostly focused on face-to-face or text-based interactions. We believe that far less is known about how gendered language plays out in fast-moving, algorithm-driven spaces such as TikTok. Hence, what led us to conduct this research, our target group consists of Gen Z women and men ages 18-25 who are active users on TikTok. We specifically selected TikTok due to its platform population hosting more Gen Z individuals than others, and due to the constant exchange of slang on its platform. Common linguistic features of Gen Z include shortened words and abbreviations such as “sus”, for suspicious. Other linguistic features present include gendered slang phrases that reinforce traditional gender expectations, such as the terms “girl boss”, “I’m just a girl”, “sigma male”, etc.

Some academic sources we view to be relevant to our topic include Van Herk’s “What is Sociolinguistics?”, which focuses on differences between gender interactions and communication. Herk explains that gendered language is not natural but performed, since gender is a social construct. He also points out that women most commonly use hedges, fillers, tag questions, uptalk, etc, that reflect differences in the way women and men communicate. In comparison, men tend to be more assertive and interruptive. This source helps us understand the roots of gendered communication so we can then compare it to modern slang use and its relation to gender. Another source we are closely looking into is, “The Social Significance of Slang” by Alice Damirjian. This article argues that slang use is deeply tied to identity formation, group boundaries, and social cohesion. While it doesn’t focus on the meaning of slang words, it instead explores how words are used and in what context. This method is similar to what we intend to do in our research paper, and why we viewed this source as a vital informative piece.

Additionally, A.M. Blackstone’s “Gender Roles and Society” article explores how gender roles are learned and reinforced through socialization and institutions. This citation we included since it helps us support our hypothesis that Gen Z slang may reflect gendered communication patterns. Blackstone’s sociological framework on gender and identity is a great source that guides our research and analysis, based on empirical evidence rather than assumptions. Overall, these studies have helped us inform our hypothesis that argues that while slang is fluid and not fully tied to gender, slang use still echoes traditional gender norms.

Methods

Our study investigates how Gen Z men and women use slang on TikTok and whether this reflects broader gendered communication patterns. To explore this, we will collect slang terms through a survey and then analyze how those terms are used in TikTok videos using a fresh account to eliminate algorithmic bias. The survey will be hosted on Google Forms for ease of delivery and to ensure that we have access to necessary statistics. After this survey, we will examine the top videos for each slang word. The use of both individual and broad-scale analysis techniques allows our group to build a more nuanced understanding of the use of slang.

Once this stage of the research process has been completed, we will be aiming for 10 videos per slang term, which will offer us dozens of relevant examples through both the video itself and its comments. This number is a reasonable amount to reach, but it does not limit our understanding. We chose this two-prong data collection method to more accurately depict the results of this experiment and gain a deeper understanding of the language used.

Using thematic coding and discourse analysis, we will analyze tone, context, delivery, and nonverbal cues associated with each slang term, focusing on how language use relates to gender performance and identity. The discourse analyzed will be specifically the way that the different genders choose to interact with each other using the slang presented. Our guiding research questions include: Do men and women use the same slang terms differently? What patterns of gendered communication emerge through slang? And how do these trends reflect or challenge traditional gender norms? Based on existing sociolinguistic literature, we hypothesize that Gen Z slang use mirrors gendered communication tendencies, with women more likely to use slang that signals inclusivity and emotional connection (e.g., “slay”), and men more likely to use slang that emphasizes assertiveness or dominance (e.g., “let’s go”). However, given Gen Z’s fluid approach to identity and language, we also expect to find challenges to this norm.

Results and Analysis

Our final pool of participants for the Google survey portion of data collection was 91 responses, with 51.6% male and 48.4% female respondents. We found that “bet” and “rizz” were the two most frequently used slang terms.  The term “rizz” was the most frequently used, with it being mentioned a total of 46 times between 17 women and 29 men. While “bet” came in second, with it being mentioned a total of 23 times between 11 women and 12 men.

Figure 1. Results from the Google Form Survey: Total Number of Respondents was 91

When analyzing the 10 male-coded videos for “rizz”, 8 out of 10 videos generated by male content creators were men demonstrating their “rizz”, by approaching women with a flirtatious attitude, with the goal of receiving the woman’s contact information. While 4 out of 10 videos captured men providing advice on how to have “rizz” or “rizz up” women. This suggests that men’s use of the term  “rizz” aligns with traditional masculine traits like assertiveness and confidence in social situations. It reflects Gen Z’s tendency to blur sincerity and parody, where young men both conform to and mock traditional courtship behavior.

Figure 2. Contextual Use of “Rizz” by Gender (Male: Flirtation, Confidence)

As for the female-coded videos for “rizz,” the results demonstrated that women most often used “rizz” for humor and romantic advice, sometimes expanding it beyond male-female contexts. The data suggests they intentionally adopt masculine slang to relate to men and navigate social dynamics, which reflects how gender norms shape communication even with shared slang. In addition, the data also showed how women resisted gendered dynamics by using “rizz” in a different manner than it was intended.

Figure 3: Contextual Use of “Rizz” (Female: Romantic Advice)

For the 10 male-coded videos with the slang term “bet,” we found that men most frequently demonstrated or recorded their use of “bet” to express agreement, acceptance, or commitment to a plan, e.g., responding “bet” when a friend proposes hanging out or making a wager. 5/10 videos analyzed showcased scenarios where “bet” was used to confirm plans or signal confidence in accepting challenges. This result suggests that men tend to use “bet” as a casual, assertive way, aligning with traditional masculine traits of confidence and decisiveness. It also reflects Gen Z’s conversational style, which blends casual affirmation with a sense of underlying confidence.

Figure 4. Contextual Use of “Bet” by Gender (Male: Agreement, Commitment, Confidence)

As for the 10 female-coded videos for the term “bet,” Our results showed that women most often used “bet” to express agreement, excitement, or playful sarcasm in casual conversations with friends. 3/10 videos analyzed women using “bet” in a lighthearted or humorous way. Showing enthusiasm or signaling they were on board with a plan.

Figure 5. Contextual Use of “Bet” by Gender (Female: Sarcasm, Excitement, Agreement)

Discussion and Conclusion

Our results show that there are distinct gendered patterns in the use of slang terms like “rizz” and “bet.” For the slang term “rizz,” men were more likely to demonstrate or embody the term, while women often used it mockingly or humorously. In the case of “bet,” men tended to use the term to affirm plans or accept challenges, reflecting direct engagement, whereas women used it more playfully or sarcastically. For both slang terms, men typically expressed traditionally masculine traits such as confidence, assertiveness, and decisiveness. In contrast, women exhibited traits like humor and irony as a way to challenge or resist the gender dynamics ingrained in the slang terms. These insights are particularly useful for scholars in sociolinguistics, digital media, and gender studies, as they highlight how informal language can reinforce, challenge, or reshape traditional gender roles. By looking at how terms like “rizz” and “bet” are used, we can gain a better understanding of how digital media reflects and reinforces ideas about traditional gender roles and communication. Our results could benefit researchers, educators, and media literacy advocates by shedding light on gendered communication patterns embedded in Gen Z slang. This insight can contribute to a broader conversation about how digital culture affects youth identity formation, peer dynamics, and societal expectations. Our research helps unpack the cultural significance of everyday language, positioning it as a key site for both reproducing and potentially resisting dominant gender ideologies.

References

Bibian Ugoala. “GENERATION Z’S LINGOS on TIKTOK: ANALYSIS of EMERGING LINGUISTIC STRUCTURES.” Journal of Language and Communication, vol. 11, no. 2, 30 Sept. 2024, pp. 211–224, www.researchgate.net/profile/Bibian-Ugoala/publication/384965246_GENERATION_Z, https://doi.org/10.47836/jlc.11.02.08.

Blackstone, A. (2003). Gender Roles and Society. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/soc_facpub/article/1000/&path_info=Blackstone___Gender_Roles_and_Society.pdf

Damirjian, A. (2024). The social significance of slang. Mind & Language. https://doi.org/10.1111/mila.12530

Herk, G, V. (2018). What Is Sociolinguistics? (Linguistics in the World) 2nd Edition (1). India New Delhi: Wiley Blackwell.

Jahan, I. (2021). The impact of gendered language on our communication and perception across contexts and domains. Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 17(4), 3523-3534. https://www.jlls.org/index.php/jlls/article/view/5449

Introduction and Background

Stereotypes associated with gossip divert from its basic communicative, relational, and cultural functions. Gossip is constantly misunderstood as idle chatter in scholarly as well as popular discourse. Recent research in psychology, communication science, and organizational behavior has reframed gossip as a socially strategic action. Gossip has been shown to be critical to social coordination, identification, and norm enforcement as a primary way in which individuals acquire knowledge about both others and themselves (Dores Cruz et al., 2021). Through our study, we examined these ideas from the specific perspective regarding how gendered depictions of gossip have evolved across generations within popular media, namely television dramas.

Before looking into this, we were already aware of previous information regarding gendered patterns of gossip, i.e., the idea that women and men gossip differently. Past research characterized women as gossiping primarily about relationships and personal matters so as to participate in social bonding, whereas men gossip to acquire humor or attain status (Levin & Arluke, 1985). Current research maintains this trend, with women participating in emotion-focused, relation-directed means of gossip in the context of coalition-building (Davis et al., 2018). We also know that men, on the other hand, gossip far less overall and use gossip in instrumental functions as a way to navigate social positioning. Such behaviors cohere with Deborah Tannen’s theoretical framework, distinguishing “rapport talk”, a related, connection-directed characteristic of women, and “report talk,” an informational, hierarchical characteristic of men (Van Herk, 2018).

Despite the fact that such patterns have long since taken root, there was no framework to comprehend the way in which media representations reinforce or challenge these gendered communication norms in the long run–the leading question guiding our own research. While prior research has explored gendered patterns in gossip, few studies have examined whether and how gossip has evolved across generations or been portrayed differently over time in television. This gap in the literature motivated our study, as we aimed to investigate whether shifts in gender norms were mirrored in media discourse. With continued influence from television to the public eye regarding social conduct, the issue we examined involved whether gender representations in gossip have shifted in sync with gender norms. With this, our research documents the construction of gossip across two periods (1990s–2000s, 2009–2022) in U.S. television with attention to gender. By combining empirical content analysis with sociolinguistic theory, our analyses help demonstrate the idea that gossip is neither fixed nor gendered; it is an evolving social practice.

Methods

In terms of gossip across different generations and genders, we were more interested in how TV shows categorized gossip across two distinct periods and how female-identifying individuals differed in their communication features from male-identifying individuals. First and foremost, we coded for gender identity based on the pronouns that were used in the show. We analyzed different TV shows representing two generational periods. The first period involved shows that were released between 1997-2009, including Friends (Seasons 5 and 8) and Survivor (Season 6). The second period involved TV shows released between 2009-2022, including Love Island (Seasons 1 and 2), Outer Banks, and The White Lotus. All of these episodes were accessed through streaming platforms, including Netflix and Hulu. Because television remains a powerful force in shaping public understandings of identity and interaction, analyzing TV dialogue allows us to observe how gossip reflects or resists evolving social norms.

For each of these shows, we chose approximately three scenes, each around 2 minutes in duration, that featured confrontation, gossip, or situations that all displayed differences between how the two identities communicated with one another. A total of 15 scenes were analyzed and transcribed across all shows. By observing the contrast between individuals, there was an exposure to how gossip can be challenged, and it allowed us to gain insight into each generational period. So, we assessed the prevalence of communication features in the scenes in the two periods of time.

*See Figure 1 below for an example of our transcriptions.*

Figure 1. Transcription from Friends (Season 5, Episode 9), showing a gossip scene used to analyze gendered communication styles like humor and confrontation.

Each television scene was analyzed using six communication features, each previously associated with gendered communication and gossip behavior: indirectness, report, rapport, humor as a shield, status assertion, and meta-commentary. For example, we see indirectness in Love Island when Caro and Cashel are talking about other couples as well as themselves. Caro, who identifies as female, says “ °hh I just (0.3) feel like (0.4) you’re not being ↑honest with me.” Use of the words “I just feel like” indicates hedging, suggesting Caro’s unwillingness to be straightforward due to nerves about how her words may be perceived. In response, Cashel, who identifies as male, says “ <<laughing> I guess I’m just the worst boyfriend ever.>” He uses humor as a shield to avoid taking ownership of his behavior. We also observed a report talk in Friends, when Ross asks, “What’s going on?” to get a factual explanation of the situation, contrasting with rapport talk, like Harper in The White Lotus confiding in Ethan to build emotional alignment over shared social discomfort. Status assertion occurred in Survivor, where one contestant claimed, “They’re playing us,” in an attempt to establish control over the narrative. Lastly, meta-commentary was seen in Outer Banks, when a character prefaced gossip with, “I know we’re being shady, but hear me out…” acknowledging the act of gossiping itself.

Figure 2. Bar chart comparing six gossip features across male and female characters from two TV generations (1997–2009 and 2009–2022), based on average frequency.

Figure 2, a grouped bar chart, compares the previously mentioned communication features across male and female characters in TV shows from two time periods: 1997–2009 and 2009–2022. The X-axis contains the coded communicative traits, while the Y‑axis shows their average frequency on the 0–4 scale. The pattern is striking: use of gossip communicational features by female characters in TV shows remained relatively consistent across the periods, while portrayals of male gossip noticeably shift, especially in regards to a reduced use of humor and indirectness. This suggests a slow blending of gendered language styles, even as clear differences persist.

In addition to data, we analyzed specific TV scenes to demonstrate these trends across contexts. Figure 3 features a moment from the White Lotus, between husband and wife, Ethan and Harper. In one scene, Harper attempts to gossip with Ethan about the other couple they are traveling with, whom she sees as fake, snobby, and arrogant (White, 2022). She uses an indirect style of gossip to assert her status as well as gain rapport from her husband, exemplifying the modern portrayal of female gossip both strategically and socially.

Figure 3. Scene from The White Lotus (Season 2, Episode 2), showing indirect and strategic gossip between characters Harper and Ethan.

To situate our project within real-world discourse, we included several informal references. A TEDx Talk titled “Why gossip is good” by Assem Bisenbay breaks down gossip’s benefits in modern society (Bisenbay, 2019). Another TEDx video, “The virtues of gossip” by Richard Weiner, echoes these ideas by arguing that gossip can foster social cohesion (TEDx, 2013). Additionally, a Reddit thread asking “Why do we love gossip?” offers everyday perspectives that parallel our findings about social bonding and status (CommonRash, 2022). Taking this media into account, our project was structured around five key ideas: gendered gossip, generational communication, TV media discourse, sociolinguistic method, and report vs. rapport talk. These pinpoint our population (TV characters), method (scene-based communication coding), and theoretical orientation. All TV show clips analyzed were publicly available; no private data or human subjects were involved. Our research is the collaborative work of Abigail Garza, Julian Goldman, Faye Turcotte, Madeline Doring, and Dylan Sherr, conducted under the mentorship of Professor Bahtina.

Discussion and Conclusion

Our findings across various scenes in TV shows contribute to the idea of gossip as a whole and what it truly means to privately discuss personal information with others through means of conversing. Gossip itself provides key insights into the ways in which individuals interact on a broader scale, both culturally and socially. In terms of gender and generational differences, studying gossip across all individuals can be used to highlight key aspects of the progression that can be seen in conversational analysis across genders. Through studying numerous television dramas, it can be seen that the ideas of report and rapport amongst male-identifying and female-identifying individuals remain true no matter the time period. This report vs. rapport stereotype can be generally accepted as being a ‘mainstay’ in the scene of gossip itself. So, although there are constant changes occurring in the world, there will still be aspects of gendered gossip that remain constant no matter where we are or what time it is.

References

Bisenbay, A. (2019, September). Why gossip is good [Video]. TED Talks. https://www.ted.com/talks/assem_bisenbay_why_gossip_is_good?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Burnett, M. (Executive Producer). (2003, April 3). Girls vs. boys (Season 6, Episode 8) [TV series episode]. In Burnett, M. (Executive producer), Survivor. CBS.

CommonRash. (2022). Why do we love gossip? Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualConversation/comments/v9dyen/why_do_we_love_gossip/

Davis, A. C., Arnocky, S., & Vaillancourt, T. (2018). Sex differences, initiating gossip. In T. K. Shackelford & V. A. Weekes-Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of evolutionary psychological science (pp. 1–8). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_190-1

Dores Cruz, T. D., Nieper, A. S., Testori, M., Martinescu, E., & Beersma, B. (2021). An integrative definition and framework to study gossip. Group & Organization Management, 46(2), 252–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601121992887

Jonas, J., & Pate, S. (Writers), & Pate, J. (Director). (2020, April 15). The runaway (Season 1, Episode 8) [TV series episode]. In Jonas, J., Pate, J., & Pate, S. (Executive producers), Outer Banks. Netflix.

Kauffman, M., & Crane, D. (Writers), & Bright, K. S. (Director). (1998, December 17). The one with Ross’s sandwich(Season 5, Episode 9) [TV series episode]. In Kauffman, M., & Crane, D. (Executive producers), Friends. NBC.

Kauffman, M., & Crane, D. (Writers), & Bright, K. S. (Director). (1999, February 11). The one where everybody finds out (Season 5, Episode 14) [TV series episode]. In Kauffman, M., & Crane, D. (Executive producers), Friends. NBC.

Kauffman, M., & Crane, D. (Writers), & Bright, K. S. (Director). (2001, November 15). The one with the rumor (Season 8, Episode 9) [TV series episode]. In Kauffman, M., & Crane, D. (Executive producers), Friends. NBC.

Levin, J., & Arluke, A. (1985). An exploratory analysis of sex differences in gossip. Sex Roles, 12(3–4), 281–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287594

Macleod, C. (Director). (2015, June 7). Episode 6 (Season 1, Episode 6) [TV series episode]. In Richard Cowles et al. (Executive producers), Love Island. ITV2.

Macleod, C. (Director). (2016, June 10). Episode 9 (Season 2, Episode 9) [TV series episode]. In Richard Cowles et al. (Executive producers), Love Island. ITV2.

TEDx Talks. (2013, November 19). The virtues of gossip: Richard Weiner at TEDxMiami 2013 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpiTp2COVZk

Van Herk, G. (2018). Gender. In What is sociolinguistics? (2nd ed., pp. 122–141). Wiley Blackwell. White, M. (Writer & Director). (2022, November 6). Italian dream (Season 2, Episode 2) [TV series episode]. In White, M. (Executive producer), The White Lotus. HBO.