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Trans-inclusive gender categories are cognitively natural

On the basis of decades of cognitive science research into the nature of lexical concepts, we argue that gender categories that reflect the reality of the experiences of transgender people are more useful and cognitively natural than sex-based category definitions.

Many people make a distinction between gender and sex: sex-based categories are defined on the basis of biological features, whereas gender-based categories reflect social roles or internal identity. The gender-versus-sex distinction gives rise to the question of whether sex-based categories are inherently better or more objective than gender-based ones. We argue that research shows that the answer to that question is ‘no’: trans-inclusive words are natural in that they match the form of most of our concepts and effectively communicate meanings that are central to people’s lives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Andrew Perfors

  2. Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Steven T. Piantadosi

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Steven T. Piantadosi & Celeste Kidd

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  1. Andrew Perfors
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Andrew Perfors.

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Perfors, A., Piantadosi, S.T. & Kidd, C. Trans-inclusive gender categories are cognitively natural.
Nat Hum Behav (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01657-y

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  • Published: 20 October 2023

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01657-y

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