Association patterns

[Svrtnsse]

Consider the following:

Mother and father
Taylor and Jordan

I've intentionally picked two gender neutral names. Do you think you'd assume that the first one is mother, or the second one? If I changed the first line to Father and mother, do you think you'd assume Taylor was the father.
In other words, does the order in which I write the gender specific words affect how you interpret the gender neutral names?

In my story I picked less neutral names, so it should be obvious who's who, but at the time it got me thinking and I decided I'd share the thought here.

 

[Heliotrope]

Yes, i would associate them with the order you listed them in. Taylor = mother, Jordan = Father

 

[Scribe Lord]

Yes. I thought Taylor was the mother and Jordan was the father simply because that matched the top line.

 

[Svrtnsse]

Cheers guys. Empirical evidence proves the theory beyond unreasonable doubt.

 

[Heliotrope]

Carry on then!

 

[CupofJoe]

There is psychological proof [I helped in the study - but I don't know if it got published] that without reference Male names are placed first in order in something like 70 to 80% of the time, if there was no prompt to not order them differently.