How Much Is that Adjective in the Window?

Washington is spending $125,000 to determine if some adjectives are more sexist than others.

No, really:

“The proposed research predicts that stereotypes activate different standards of judgments for members of different groups; therefore, evaluations (adjectives) mean different things depending on the person described,” according to the grant for the study.

“For example, in a masculine work domain where women are stereotyped as less competent, ‘good’ for a woman may mean something objectively less good than ‘good’ for a man,” it said.

The project will examine letters of recommendation to see whether letters for women and minorities are “influenced by gender and racial stereotypes” that affect chances of admission into graduate school.

Make it an even $100,000, and I’d be willing to spend six months studying the effects of margaritas on gender-stereotyped bikini girls.

For science.