Gender Neutrality Task

Description

Participants were given sentences one clause at a time and asked to interpret the sentence. Sentences contained a definite ("teacher") or indefinite ("someone") antecedent and a pronoun, either definite ("he" or "she") or indefinite ("they"). The experimenters found that participants could read sentences with "they" as quickly as sentences with a pronoun that did match the stereotypical antecedent and faster than those where the pronoun did not match.
This finding implies that "they" can be used effectively as an indefinite pronoun where the gender of the person is unknown or unknowable. The problem with using "they" in English is that prescriptively, it is forbidden (as "they" is technically plural, and cannot be used with singular antecedents). This finding aims to point out that that does not mean people cannot understand the use of singular "they".

Reference

Foertsch, J., and Gernsbacher, M.A. (1997). In search of gender neutrality: Is singular They a cognitively efficient substitute for generic He? Psychological Science, 8, 106-111