Journal
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH
Volume 120, Issue -, Pages 498-508Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC
DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.03.007
Keywords
Gendered marketing; Extended self; Extended phenotype; Secondary sexual characteristics; Sexual dimorphism; Supernormal stimuli
Categories
Funding
- ANR-Labex IAST
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Gendered marketing is a pervasive trend, despite the public controversies it generates. Most of research so far has focused on the socialization-based perspectives of gendered marketing to explain this phenomenon. In this research, we ask the following instrumental question: which benefits can men and women derive from owning gender-typical variants of consumer goods? We propose that gender-typical products can act as the extended phenotype of human sexual dimorphism, broadcasting a cultural equivalent to the signals issued by biological, secondary sexual characteristics. Based on evidence showing that secondary sexual characteristics increase at-tractiveness and desirability, we predict that gender-typical products increase the attractiveness and desirability of their owners by acting as supernormal stimuli of sexual dimorphism. An internal meta-analysis across three studies confirms that consumers who own gender-typical products are mentally pictured as more physically attractive. We also find that owners of gender-typical products can be perceived as sexier, and more desirable partners.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available