To determine the source of perceptual attributions made about male and female communicators, 120 college students provided their perceptions about the speakers on tape recordings in which male/female voices showed variations in task and socio-emotional behavior, pronunciation of "-ing" word endings, interruptions, amount of words, pitch, and intonation. On one tape the speakers used gender-appropriate language, while on the other tape the speakers used gender-inappropriate language. The results indicate that regardless of whether the communicators are male or female, "female" language features consistently contribute to the communicator's credibility, while "male" language features contribute to the communicator's perceived level of extroversion. This evidence shows that communicators are differentially perceived as a consequence of linguistic features in their messages rather than as a consequence of mere identification of source gender, and that one's language should not be restricted by traditional sex-role prescriptions, but should be guided by situational appropriateness. (Author/RL)