Question

How was the research conducted in the Gender and Form of Cereal Box Characters: Different Medium, Same Disparity?

Answer 1

Researches have discovered that women perceive cereal labels as more strongly relating to taste and appearance, and men perceive them as less meaningfully linked to these attributes, although in many experiments performed in a laboratory environment, we find that gender differences in these perceptions hold true in public contexts. However, we have found that women's impressions of the cereal labels do not always reflect their actual opinion of the cereal brands. For example, people who are not generally familiar with cereal labels are often unable to distinguish between the cereal and milk box labels. It has led us to explore how cereal labeling affects the understanding of cereal by using research designs involving several consumer trials as well as in laboratory studies of both consumption and option behavior. A first study determined how gender influences perceptions of cereal labels. Female participants saw the cereal label detail on the package more frequently when they were thinking about a particular brand. Women used more complicated sentences to explain how the cereal is prepared. Such results indicate people might be attracted to some cereal brands and buy more cereal when thinking about these products, at least in some experiments. In another study, We found that women consumers in our study ate more cereal when they were thinking about brands other than their own. Women consumed significantly more cereal than did men when shopping at stores (which cost less) that sell additional cereal varieties, and women drank substantially more milk when viewing company sites for products whose labels mention milk. Our results indicate that brands can influence how people think and consume. The concern that labeling might be designed to influence consumer behavior should be balanced with the evidence that it is likely to influence actual consumer behavior. To the extent that labeling can influence people's own behaviors, we have yet to develop methods to empirically test this hypothesis.