An investigation of sex differences in word ratings across concrete, abstract, and emotion words

Researchers have often overlooked the relationships between sex and ratings of word characteristics, such as concreteness, context-availability, imageability, and emotionality. The current study investigated whether or not sex differences exist in such ratings for abstract, concrete, and emotion words. The results indicated that females rated concrete words as more emotional in nature. However, sex differences did not emerge in the ratings of abstract and emotion words. These findings indicate that sex differences can be demonstrated both across word types and across scales; they also emphasize the need to revise the standard models of word processing and representation so as to address issues related to sex differences.