TY - JOUR
T1 - Revisiting gender differences
T2 - What we know and what lies ahead
AU - Meyers-Levy, Joan
AU - Loken, Barbara
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Society for Consumer Psychology.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - Efforts to identify and understand gender differences have a long history that has sparked lively debate and generated much public interest. Although understanding gender differences is pivotal to consumer researchers and marketers, investigations into this issue by such individuals have been few in number, often weak in theory, and rather limited in progress made. This paper strives to reinvigorate such inquiry. We begin by describing four major theories of gender differences (socio-cultural, evolutionary, hormone-brain, and the selectivity hypothesis) and then assess relevant research from 2000 to 2013 in marketing, psychology, and biomedicine. From this, five conclusions emerge: Males are more self-oriented, while females are more other-oriented; females are more cautious responders; females are more responsive to negative data; males process data more selectively and females more comprehensively; and females are more sensitive to differentiating conditions and factors. We conclude by identifying several areas of opportunity for advancing our understanding of gender differences.
AB - Efforts to identify and understand gender differences have a long history that has sparked lively debate and generated much public interest. Although understanding gender differences is pivotal to consumer researchers and marketers, investigations into this issue by such individuals have been few in number, often weak in theory, and rather limited in progress made. This paper strives to reinvigorate such inquiry. We begin by describing four major theories of gender differences (socio-cultural, evolutionary, hormone-brain, and the selectivity hypothesis) and then assess relevant research from 2000 to 2013 in marketing, psychology, and biomedicine. From this, five conclusions emerge: Males are more self-oriented, while females are more other-oriented; females are more cautious responders; females are more responsive to negative data; males process data more selectively and females more comprehensively; and females are more sensitive to differentiating conditions and factors. We conclude by identifying several areas of opportunity for advancing our understanding of gender differences.
KW - Gender differences
KW - Information processing
KW - Sex differences
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jcps.2014.06.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jcps.2014.06.003
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84920136692
SN - 1057-7408
VL - 25
SP - 129
EP - 149
JO - Journal of Consumer Psychology
JF - Journal of Consumer Psychology
IS - 1
ER -