With an endowment of CHF 250,000, the Marcel Benoist Swiss Science Prize is considered to be the Swiss equivalent of the Nobel Prize. This year’s prizewinner is Pascal Gygax, scientist for experimental psycholinguistics and cognitive psychology at the University of Fribourg, whose outstanding contribution to research into the relationship between language and gender-specific prejudice is being recognised through this award.
Male is equal to man – and unequal to woman
His investigations into the influence of a masculinised language on our perception of the world are particularly relevant. His experiments show that the use of the generic masculine (meaning the sole use of male word forms for all gender identities) is not interpreted generically by the brain, due to its functionality. If we read a word in the male form, for example baker, we interpret it as “male equals men”, meaning there is no automatic association with women or non-binary persons. This has far-reaching social consequences, examples being the choice of a profession or in the case of job vacancy advertisements. Professions perceived as typically male, such as surgeon (German: Chirurg), generate greater interest among girls and young women if they are also described in the female form (German: Chirurgin).
Research conducted by Pascal Gygax also addresses other questions, including, for example, the cognitive processing by adolescents of warning information on packets of cigarettes in order to develop more effective approaches to prevention. He has also been able to demonstrate how our perception of time is influenced by language, based on scientific data from the last fifty years.
Making science comprehensible
The communication of complex scientific findings in a generally understandable manner is a major concern of Pascal Gygax, as this makes science accessible to the general public. Radio contributions and workshops addressing the subject of inclusive language are as much part of his commitment as working with children. He was a co-author in 2021 of the book Le cerveau pense-t-il au masculin? Cerveau, langage et représentations sexistes (“Does the brain think in the masculine? Brain, language and sexist representations”), a plea for inclusive language.
The researcher emphasises: “Receiving this award is not only a great honour but also a very important sign of recognition for the entire team. It rewards twenty years of research into the complex but exciting links between language and thinking, and more specifically, the links between language and male privilege. In today’s world, this award also sends a strong message to anyone researching and highlighting gender inequalities: Your work is vital to research and teaching!”
Award ceremony for the Swiss Science Prizes Marcel Benoist und Latsis in the Federal Palace
The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) was responsible for the scientific selection of the award winner on behalf of the Marcel Benoist Foundation. The joint award ceremony for the Swiss Science Prizes Marcel Benoist and Latsis will be held on 7 November 2024 in the National Council Chamber of the Federal Parliament Building in Bern. The presidents of the respective foundations will present the prizes in the presence of the Swiss federal councillor Guy Parmelin and the president of the National Council, Eric Nussbaumer.
The 2024 laureate: PD Dr. Pascal Mark Gygax
Pascal Mark Gygax, who was born in 1974 in Evilard (Bern), earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Derby and a master’s degree in sports psychology at the University of Liverpool. He gained a doctorate degree in experimental psychology at the University of Sussex. In 2002 he returned to Switzerland, where he was a co-founder of the Psycholinguistics and Applied Social Psychology Group in the Department of Psychology at the University of Fribourg, and he remains a co-director of this group. Pascal Mark Gygax is the author of over 60 peer-reviewed articles and numerous publications intended for the general public. He received the Prize for Outstanding Independent Studies from the University of Derby in 1998, and 2016 saw him awarded the Gender Prize of the University of Fribourg. The psycholinguist has already received 21 grants from national and international research funding organisations.
Resources on Pascal Mark Gygax’ research
- Jäggi, T., Sato, S., & Gygax, P. M. (2023). Skin cancer risk assessment and the grammaticalization of the future: the role of epistemic modality when temporally framing health information. Language and Health, 1(1), 5866. ↗
- Gygax, P., Sato, S., Oetl, A. & Gabriel, U. (2021). The masculine form and its multiple interpretations: a challenge for our cognitive system. Language Sciences, 83. ↗
- Gygax, P., Gabriel, U., Sarrasin, O., Garnham, A., & Oakhill, J. (2008). There is no generic masculine in French and German: When beauticians, musicians and mechanics are all men. Language and Cognitive Processes, 23, 464-485. ↗
- Vervecken, D., Gygax, P., Gabriel, U., Guillod, M., Hannover, B. (2015). Warm businessmen, cold housewives? Effects of gender-fair language on adolescents’ perceptions of occupations. Frontiers in Psychology – Cognition. ↗