Cross-Cultural Sexism and the Effectiveness of Gender (Non)Traditional Advertising: A Comparison of Purchase Intentions in Poland, South Africa, and the United Kingdom

Abstract

Findings regarding the effectiveness of (non)traditionally gendered advertisements are mixed and largely emanate from the United States. We tested the stereotype content model and ambivalent sexism theory cross-nationally in an advertising context and predicted that paternalistic (vs. envious) female stereotypes will trigger higher purchase intent (PI) irrespective of country (Hypothesis 1), viewers' benevolent sexism will positively predict PI for paternalistic housewife advertisements (Hypothesis 2a), viewers' hostile sexism will negatively predict PI for envious businesswoman advertisements (Hypothesis 2b), and these relationships with sexism will be confined to less gender egalitarian countries (i.e., Poland and South Africa) (Hypothesis 3).Statistical analyses of data from 468 Polish, South African, and British university students supported Hypothesis 1 and partially supported Hypotheses 2 and 3. The predicted patterns held for South Africa, but in Poland, viewers' benevolence positively predicted PI for both advertisement types, with the exception of highly hostile women. British viewers' hostility positively predicted PI for the housewife advertisement. Our findings support the cross-cultural applicability of the stereotype content model to advertising and suggest that the predictive role of sexism changes depending on its type, advertisement type, country, and gender. We recommend that advertisers should adopt a nuanced approach in predicting the effectiveness of gendered advertisements.

Does Sex Really Sell? Paradoxical Effects of Sexualization in Advertising on Product Attractiveness and Purchase Intentions

“…Moreover, the present study deepens our understanding of the moderating role of individual differences in gender attitudes on the relation between female ad sexualization and purchase intentions: Especially men with higher hostile sexism showed more purchase intentions after viewing sexualized than neutral ads. This finding nicely parallels results by Zawisza et al (2018) who showed a positive association between hostile sexism and purchase intentions toward stereotypically feminine ads. In addition, our results suggest that the endorsement of hostile sexism by men may favor the validation of sexualized female models proposed by media.…”

“…In the context of stereotypical advertising research, some researchers have pointed to a possible role of traditional attitudes in gender relationships. For example, hostile sexism, as an overt hostility toward women that is composed of the drive forces of paternalism, gender differentiation, and heterosexuality (Glick and Fiske 1996), is positively related to favorable attitudes and purchase intentions toward stereotypically feminine ads (i.e., women as housewives; Zawisza et al 2018). Moreover, attitudes toward gender roles have been studied in relation to stereotypical ads' effectiveness (Zawisza and Cinnirella 2010), but to our knowledge such a relation has been overlooked in research regarding sexualization ads' effectiveness.…”

Gendered advertising: content, effectiveness and effects – psychological perspective

“…This effect also seems robust across cultures as diverse as Poland, South Africa and the UK -in all these countries we report the preference of the non-traditional but warm househusband advertising character over the traditional but cold businessman character . Our recent research shows that this communal advantage also holds for female characters in the same countries (Zawisza et al, 2018). Infanger and Sczesny (2015) have recently also provided direct evidence that these differences in advertising effectiveness are indeed explained by warmth.…”

“…housewife) vis-à-vis a non-traditional one (e.g. businesswoman) with regards to ads for mineral water and orange juice (Zawisza and Cinnirella, 2010) in countries as diverse as Poland, South Africa and the UK (Zawisza et al, 2018). Similarly, Infanger, Bosak and Sczesny (2012) found that communal (traditional) female advertising portrayals (a woman with a baby or a cat) were preferred over agentic (non-traditional) ones (e.g.…”

“…The mixed pattern of findings with regards to the female depictions might be partly due to the inconsistent operationalization of ad effectiveness across the studies. These include: affect and purchase intent (Jaffe and Berger, 1994); ad evaluation and recall (Whipple and Courtney, 1980); affective and cognitive responses to the ads (Zawisza and Cinnirella, 2010;; purchase intent (Infanger, Bosak and Sczesny, 2012;Zawisza and Cinnirella, 2010;Zawisza et al, , 2018 as well as attitudes to the ad and brand (Baxter, Kulczynski and Ilicic, 2016;Infanger and Sczesny, 2015). However, the same methodological inconsistencies did not seem to affect the pattern of findings reported for male gender portrayals.…”