Effect of Gender-fair Writing on Lexical Access in French.

In gender-marked languages like French, the use of gender-fair forms such as the middle dot (e.g., étudiant·e [student]) is promoted for inclusivity but criticized for impairing readability. Grounded in the dual-route model of reading, this study provides the first empirical test of the middle dot’s impact on French lexical access. Participants performed a lexical decision task with words and pseudowords presented either in gendered form or in middle-dot form. We analyzed reaction times using linear mixed-effects models controlling for stimulus length. For real words, our analysis revealed a persistent processing cost: reaction times were significantly slower for middle-dot forms compared to gendered forms across both blocks of the task, indicating no short-term habituation to this disruption of the lexical route. In contrast, the significant processing cost associated with pseudowords in the first block completely disappeared in the second block. This suggests the rapid development of a strategic shortcut of the non-lexical route. A complementary analysis of accuracy revealed a main effect of writing form, with significantly lower accuracy for middle-dot items overall, further indicating increased processing difficulty for middle-dot forms. These effects were not modulated by participants’ opinion on gender-fair writing. Future eye-tracking studies using more ecological reading paradigms are needed to clarify these visual processing strategies and determine whether gender-fair markers are fully integrated semantically during reading.