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A study in pink and other feminine stereotype: the effect on congruence between self-construal and gender stereotypes on the appraisal of products and Aavertisements

Drost, W. (2013) A study in pink and other feminine stereotype: the effect on congruence between self-construal and gender stereotypes on the appraisal of products and Aavertisements.

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Abstract:Gender marketing is an often employed strategy to target women; an increasingly attractive target group for companies. Gender marketing is based on gender stereotypes, which consequently results in the frequent use of stereotypes in advertisements. The purpose of this study was to examine whether by priming an individual’s self-construal situational acceptance or rejection of gender stereotypes can occur. It was expected that respondents with a self-construal congruent to the stereotypical nature of the product design will have more favourable attitudes to the advertisement and product than when there is incongruence between the type of self-construal and the stereotypical nature of the product design. Additionally, the influence of gender identity on advertisement and product appraisal was examined. The study of Aaker and Lee (2001) has been used as guidelines to prime self-construal with different advertisement scenarios. Consequently, four different advertisements, differing on the type of advertisement scenario (business/family) and the type of product design (gender stereotypical/gender neutral) were randomly distributed over 160 women. Results indicated that congruence between self-construal and type of product design did not result in a significant increase in favourable attitudes towards advertisement or product. The respondent’s gender identity also did not influence the attitude towards the advertisement or product. However, if the multivariate analysis was run including age, split in three age groups, it appeared that the youngest age group had more favourable attitudes towards the advertisement with the stereotypical product design in the interdependent self-construal condition, while the oldest age group showed preference for the advertisement with the gender-neutral product design in the interdependent self-construal condition. A possible explanation for the unexpected results is that the respondents did not process the elements of the advertisement elaborately, so that recognition and appraisal of the gender stereotypes could not take place.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63823
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