Positive mood enhances gender stereotype activation during semantic integration and re-analysis

Abstract

Gender stereotypes are deeply rooted in language, and their activation can be influenced by various factors. Behavioural evidence suggests that both positive and negative moods can modulate responses to stereotype-laden linguistic content. Early research also highlights the role of colour–gender associations in language processing. However, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the interaction between mood, gender stereotype activation, and colour–gender associations remain underexplored. Here, we provide novel neurocognitive evidence that a positive mood actively facilitates access to stereotype knowledge during the stage of semantic integration and re-analysis. Female participants induced into positive or negative moods made stereotype congruency judgments about sentences that were either congruent or incongruent with gender stereotypes, preceded by gendered (pink/blue circles) or gender-neutral (white circles) visual cues. First, the results showed smaller N200 amplitudes in a positive compared to negative mood only for sentences preceded by gender-neutral cues, suggesting that gender-driven expectancies evoked by gendered cues can override mood effects during early lexico-semantic processing. Second, we found smaller N400 amplitudes in a positive compared to negative mood, indicating overall facilitation of lexico-semantic processing in a positive mood, irrespective of stereotype congruency. Finally, we observed larger Late Positive Complex (LPC) amplitudes for stereotypically incongruent than congruent sentences only in a positive mood, pointing to gender stereotype knowledge modulating semantic integration and reanalysis processes in a positive but not negative mood.