Ute Barbara Gabriel

About

Ute Barbara Gabriel holds a doctorate in psychology from Technische Universität Berlin (1998) and a habilitation from the University of Bern (2005). She has held research positions at the University of Bonn (1993–1995) and the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (1995–1998), and later worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer at the University of Bern (1998–2006). She has been a professor at the Department of Psychology at NTNU since 2006, and has served as Deputy Head of Department (2010–2013) and Head of Department (2017–2021).

Her research focuses on social psychology and psychology and law. She has served as Guest Editor for the Swiss Journal of Psychology and as Associate Editor for the European Journal of Social Psychology. She has received research funding from, among others, the Swiss National Foundation, the EU’s 7th Framework Programme (Marie Curie ITN), and the Research Council of Norway (FriPro).

Research

Do small words make a difference?

This project investigates the effects of gender-neutral pronouns on mental gender representations and perceptions of text quality in Dutch, French and Norwegian.

Publications

2026

Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Jäggi, Tiziana. (2026) Gender inclusive language in Norwegian (Bokmål): How (not) to encode referential gender.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Gygax, Pascal; Zufferey, Sandrine; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2026) Et si on arrêtait de penser au masculin ? Comment voir le monde sous un autre genre. LeRobert LeRobert
Popular scientific book

2025

Verhaegen, Hanne; Hoof, Sarah Van; Herck, Rebecca Van; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal; Decock, Sofie. (2025) The effect of Dutch gender-neutral pronouns on perceived text quality: generic reference in employee guidelines. Applied Psycholinguistics
Academic article
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Gygax, Pascal M.; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2025) How Internet Habits Influence Social Cognitive Research: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations in the Era of Social Media. Journal of Perceptual Imaging (JPI)
Academic article
Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Taraldsen, Jonette. (2025) The role of self-efficacy and social belonging in Norwegian upper secondary students’ interest in gendered occupations. Social Psychology of Education
Academic article
Sato, Sayaka; Gygax, Pascal M.; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Oakhill, Jane; Escasain, Lucie. (2025) Does Inclusive Language Increase the Visibility of Women, or Does It Simply Decrease the Visibility of Men? A Missing Piece of the Inclusive Language Jigsaw. Collabra: Psychology
Academic article
Jäggi, Tiziana; Gygax, Pascal M.; Decock, Sofie; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Hoof, Sarah Van; Verhaegen, Hanne. (2025) Beyond She and He: A Framework for Studying the Cognitive, Psychological and Social Effects of Gender-Neutral Pronouns. Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Academic article
Escasain, Lucie; Gygax, Pascal M.; Sato, Sayaka; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Oakhill, Jane. (2025) Influencing Adolescents’ Gendered Aspirations for Nursing and Surgery. Open Psychology
Academic article

2024

Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal; Siyonova-Chanturia, Anna. (2024) Stimulus Selection Based on Gender Ratios: Gender Ratios are Indicative of Both Stereotypical and Conceptual Gender. Psychological Reports
Academic article
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal; Siyonova-Chanturia, Anna. (2024) Language and Stereotypes.
Chapter

2023

Öttl, Anton; Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Behne, Dawn Marie; Gygax, Pascal M.; Hyönä, Jukka; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2023) Exploring the comparative adequacy of a unimanual and a bimanual stimulus-response setup for use with three-alternative choice response time tasks. PLOS ONE
Academic article
Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal. (2023) Dealing with Participant Variability in Experimental Linguistics.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Öttl, Anton; Gygax, Pascal M.; Behne, Dawn Marie; Hyönä, Jukka; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2023) “The Authors” Make Me Think Equally of Women and Men: Exploring Mixed-Gender Representations in a Visual Categorisation Task. Open Psychology
Academic article
Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Öttl, Anton; Gygax, Pascal; Cui, Lei; Hyönä, Jukka. (2023) Norms on the Gender Perception of Role Nouns: Gender Ratio Data for Chinese, Finnish, and Russian. Journal of Open Psychology Data
Academic article

2022

Kim, Jonathan; Angst, Sarah; Gygax, Pascal; Gabriel, Ute; Zufferey, Sandrine. (2022) The masculine bias in fully gendered languages and ways to avoid it: A study on gender neutral forms in Québec and Swiss French. Journal of French Language Studies
Academic article
Pittet, Mégane; Gygax, Pascal; Gabriel, Ute; Oakhill, Jane. (2022) Vocational aspirations and gender: Fighting the normative impact of language and stereotypes.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

2021

Gygax, Pascal M.; Zufferey, Sandrine; Gabriel, Ute. (2021) Le cerveau pense-t-il au masculin ? - Cerveau, langage et représentations sexistes. Le Robert Le Robert
Popular scientific book

Journal publications

Verhaegen, Hanne; Hoof, Sarah Van; Herck, Rebecca Van; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal; Decock, Sofie. (2025) The effect of Dutch gender-neutral pronouns on perceived text quality: generic reference in employee guidelines. Applied Psycholinguistics
Academic article
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Gygax, Pascal M.; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2025) How Internet Habits Influence Social Cognitive Research: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations in the Era of Social Media. Journal of Perceptual Imaging (JPI)
Academic article
Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Taraldsen, Jonette. (2025) The role of self-efficacy and social belonging in Norwegian upper secondary students’ interest in gendered occupations. Social Psychology of Education
Academic article
Sato, Sayaka; Gygax, Pascal M.; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Oakhill, Jane; Escasain, Lucie. (2025) Does Inclusive Language Increase the Visibility of Women, or Does It Simply Decrease the Visibility of Men? A Missing Piece of the Inclusive Language Jigsaw. Collabra: Psychology
Academic article
Jäggi, Tiziana; Gygax, Pascal M.; Decock, Sofie; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Hoof, Sarah Van; Verhaegen, Hanne. (2025) Beyond She and He: A Framework for Studying the Cognitive, Psychological and Social Effects of Gender-Neutral Pronouns. Journal of Language and Social Psychology
Academic article
Escasain, Lucie; Gygax, Pascal M.; Sato, Sayaka; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Oakhill, Jane. (2025) Influencing Adolescents’ Gendered Aspirations for Nursing and Surgery. Open Psychology
Academic article
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal; Siyonova-Chanturia, Anna. (2024) Stimulus Selection Based on Gender Ratios: Gender Ratios are Indicative of Both Stereotypical and Conceptual Gender. Psychological Reports
Academic article
Öttl, Anton; Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Behne, Dawn Marie; Gygax, Pascal M.; Hyönä, Jukka; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2023) Exploring the comparative adequacy of a unimanual and a bimanual stimulus-response setup for use with three-alternative choice response time tasks. PLOS ONE
Academic article
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Öttl, Anton; Gygax, Pascal M.; Behne, Dawn Marie; Hyönä, Jukka; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2023) “The Authors” Make Me Think Equally of Women and Men: Exploring Mixed-Gender Representations in a Visual Categorisation Task. Open Psychology
Academic article
Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Öttl, Anton; Gygax, Pascal; Cui, Lei; Hyönä, Jukka. (2023) Norms on the Gender Perception of Role Nouns: Gender Ratio Data for Chinese, Finnish, and Russian. Journal of Open Psychology Data
Academic article
Kim, Jonathan; Angst, Sarah; Gygax, Pascal; Gabriel, Ute; Zufferey, Sandrine. (2022) The masculine bias in fully gendered languages and ways to avoid it: A study on gender neutral forms in Québec and Swiss French. Journal of French Language Studies
Academic article

Books

Gygax, Pascal; Zufferey, Sandrine; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2026) Et si on arrêtait de penser au masculin ? Comment voir le monde sous un autre genre. LeRobert LeRobert
Popular scientific book
Gygax, Pascal M.; Zufferey, Sandrine; Gabriel, Ute. (2021) Le cerveau pense-t-il au masculin ? - Cerveau, langage et représentations sexistes. Le Robert Le Robert
Popular scientific book

Part of book/report

Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Jäggi, Tiziana. (2026) Gender inclusive language in Norwegian (Bokmål): How (not) to encode referential gender.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Kim, Jonathan Daniel; Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal; Siyonova-Chanturia, Anna. (2024) Language and Stereotypes.
Chapter
Gabriel, Ute Barbara; Gygax, Pascal. (2023) Dealing with Participant Variability in Experimental Linguistics.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Pittet, Mégane; Gygax, Pascal; Gabriel, Ute; Oakhill, Jane. (2022) Vocational aspirations and gender: Fighting the normative impact of language and stereotypes.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

Teaching

Courses

Outreach

Hva om vi sluttet å tenke maskulint? (Original tittel: Et si on arrêtait de penser au masculin?)

En lett tilgjengelig og innsiktsfull bok (på fransk) som viser hvordan franske språkregler og vanlige språkpraksiser – særlig den maskuline «forrangsregelen» – påvirker hvordan vi oppfatter verden.

What if We Stopped Thinking in the Masculine? (Original title: Et si on arrêtait de penser au masculin? — in French)

A concise and highly accessible French‑language book that explores how everyday linguistic practices in French — especially the rule that prioritizes masculine forms — shape the way we think and perceive the world.

2025

Interview

Murray, Helen Margaret; Pettersen, Johan Berg; Gabriel, Ute Barbara. (2025) Áigu loktet sámi dutkama | Avvir. Ávvir Ávvir [Journal] 30.09.2025

Språkvelger

Ute Barbara Gabriel