The use of masculine forms in job titles (e.g., fireman, salesman) can deter women from applying or being selected for certain positions. The current research investigated the degree to which masculine linguistic forms are effective as generics. An experiment (N = 273) assessed to what extent four linguistic forms of job titles in German—masculine, abbreviated form with slashes, gender neutral, or masculine with brackets (m/f/d)—are implicitly associated with women and men using an Implicit Association Test. Masculine job titles were more strongly associated with men relative to women. In contrast, job titles using the slash form and gender-neutral form eliminated this male bias in implicit associations. The masculine form with brackets (m/f/d) produced similar effects to the conventional masculine form, and as such, was also ineffective in reducing a male bias. The present work contributes to the growing literature on the role of gender-inclusive language in recruitment and selection.

在职位名称中使用男性形式（例如消防员、推销员）可能会阻止女性申请或被选拔担任某些职位。当前的研究调查了男性语言形式作为泛型的有效程度。一个实验（N = 273）使用内隐关联测试评估了德语职称的四种语言形式（男性、带斜杠的缩写形式、性别中性或带括号的男性（m/f/d））​​与女性和男性的隐性关联程度。相对于女性，男性职位与男性的相关性更强。相比之下，使用斜杠形式和性别中立形式的职称消除了隐性关联中的男性偏见。带括号的男性形式（m/f/d）产生与传统男性形式相似的效果，因此在减少男性偏见方面也无效。目前的工作有助于越来越多关于性别包容性语言在招聘和选拔中的作用的文献。