The readability of the non-binary gender star in German: Evidence from a lexical decision task

The non-binary gender star in German (e.g. Radfahrer*in - cyclist) is intended to inclusively address all genders, that is, persons identifying beyond a female-male dichotomy, as well as women and men. Critics of this gender-fair form claim that, because it is not in line with German orthography, it impedes the readability of texts. Experimental research on this claim is still scarce. Because word recognition is a crucial component of the reading process, we developed a lexical decision task to investigate lexical access to role nouns in star form with a student (Experiment 1: 97 participants, 18– 29 years) and a non-student sample (Experiment 2: 80 participants, 30–80 years), thus taking interindividual differences into account. Our results are promising for proponents of the star form: First, we found that less than 3% of all participants rejected star nouns as German words. Second, amongst the remaining participants, students accepted star nouns as fast and often as feminine and masculine forms. In contrast, non-students accepted star nouns slower and less often. However, the non-students’ initial difficulties in lexical access reflected in slower reaction times were overcome quickly over the course of the experiment thus suggesting that the readability of the gender star is a matter of familiarity and practice.