An investigation of age and gender differences in children’s preferences underlying choice

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate age and gender differences in young consumers’ attribute preferences that underlie their choice decisions. This research proposes and finds that attribute preferences are moderated by age but not gender. Understanding how children at different ages evaluate a product’s attributes is essential to new children’s product development. Design/methodology/approach Hierarchical Bayesian choice-based conjoint analysis was used to assess attribute importance via a series of choice tasks among children and adults. Adults completed the study by survey, whereas children were interviewed and led through the choice tasks. Findings This research finds that the preference structure for a product’s attributes differs systematically based on the age of children. Younger children chose based on perceptually salient attributes of a product, whereas older children chose based on cognitively salient attributes. When children’s attribute preferences are compared to adults, older children value attributes more similarly to adults than younger children. While gender differences were proposed and found, further analysis indicated that these differences were driven by adults in the sample and that no gender differences existed in the children’s age categories. Originality/value This study is the first to study children’s preference structure in complex choices with different ages preferring different attributes. By using conjoint analysis, this research is able to understand children’s underlying decision process, as utility scores are obtained providing a level of precision for understanding the underlying process of children’s choices that other studies have not used.

Design Considerations for Therapeutic Devices - An Investigation of Pre-Schoolers’ Preferences for an Artefact’s Basic Characteristics

“…At the pre-school age, children are at the preoperational stage (age 2-7) where their views are dominated by the appearance of artefacts which are referred to as the perceptual salient characteristics. At this age, children are not yet able to distinguish between what is perceptually and cognitively salient (Yeh, Jewell and Zamudio, 2018).…”

“…Ultimately, during design, all interactions are considered but depending on the approach some factors take secondary importance. (Ashby, 1999) Due to their vulnerability, children often fall victims to misleading advertisements and may quickly lose interest in toys either because they fail to deliver the expected experiences, break, are outgrown, or stop providing positive feelings (Yeh, Jewell and Zamudio, 2018). Understanding what products' attributes influence children's preferences can therefore extend the use life phase of products.…”

“…Research in the study of emotions of children utilise Piaget's theory which explains children's cognitive development (Correia et al, 2012;Šramová, 2017;Yeh, Jewell and Zamudio, 2018). Piaget's theory states that children go through four increasingly adaptive stages and depending on the level they are, information is treated and categorised differently.…”

“…Children are attracted to a toy depending on how the product's aesthetical attributes are perceived through the senses. On the other hand, preferences are also affected by gender due to societal influences depending on the cognitive type of play that a toy offers (Yeh, Jewell and Zamudio, 2018). Sensory perception in children is studied either for research purposes or for consumer testing.…”

“…Dinaky (2013) evaluated that the most influencing factors in the packaging of toys for various age groups, is the artwork, rather the colour or material of the actual packaging. Recently, Yeh, Jewell and Zamudio (2018) used trading card games to show that when pre-schoolers are required to choose between multi-attribute options they base their choices on perceptually salient factors whereas older children, like adults, are aware of cognitively salient aspects such as the power level of the card. The above studies show that research on pre-schoolers' product basic characteristic preference is very limited.…”